"What do you think Thing?" I asked to my shoulder where the stitched hand rested.
He made a thumb up while I looked at myself in the mirror of the shop.
"I don't quite like the hat..." I said touching it a bit, truing to find a spot to let it rest.
"I'm surprised you even like the clothing." I heard Wednesday behind me, and I looked at her through the reflection, the classic clothing that they made us wear to sell fudge somehow looking good on her.
"Well I think you look kinda-..." I stopped myself,not daring to get clothes that aren't mine full of blood after being stabbed, but apparently not for Thing once I saw him gesturing how she looked cute, completing my words.
"Say that again and you won't even be able to make a thumb up." She said fulminating Thing with her eyes.
"Are we going on this Crackstone or not?" I said putting my hat on Wednesday head,leaving before I could've gotten captured.
Wednesday quickly followed me,and just the moment she was going to decide what do to with me she saw me just standing watching at something.
She followed my eyes and she immediately knew she had better things to do.
The three same normie boys picking on Eugene, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform and putting him up.
Me and Wednesday stared at eachother before she was the one stepping up first.
"Leave him alone."
The three boys turned to see Wednesday,me behind her waiting for anything to happen, and suddenly the situation went from 25 to a 100 in seconds when Eugene vomited over the Pilgrim boy.
"Oh you're in deep shit!" He said but before he was able to do anything a nail flew from my direction to his cheek, my precision still needing a bit of work as I saw it get stuck in his cheek,when I was supposed to go and pass both with ease.
"Fuck what!?" He yelled trying to take the golden nail out,but pinched hid hand first before quickly pushing it out this time.
"Man what the fuck!" The other two pilgrims tried moving foward by Wednesday cut them off standing in between them.
"None of you want to stay in here with us." She said taking off the hat,ready for teenager adrenaline to kick in the normies, but intelligence is the reason of why humanity strives as a species,and quickly the three of them ran away.
"Ugh seriously Eugene I've been trying to help but your social skills are still deep zero." I said closing by.
"Let's get you cleaned up..." she said grabbing Eugene by the hand and sitting him down,suddenly I'm just confused.
"Wait you know eachother?"
"Remember when I told you a girl joined the club?" Eugene said smilling to me.
"And you were joking." I said quickly.
"Well he wasn't..." Wednesday said standing up next to me,watching Eugene,clearly thinking if bringing him with us.
"Hey Eugene you coming with us." I said foward, grabbing his arm and pulling him up to his feet.
"Eh what are we doing?"
"Check up a door so me and Wednesday can enter the meeting house without disturbance" I explained while the three,(or four counting the hand) went behind the house,watching the locked door.
"Gosh who uses a lock that old, it's practically asking to be opened..." I said handing Wednesday two nails, since I started experimenting with reversing things to create more, I first thought weapons were hard.
But a simple nail made of one material is one of the easiest, so I just make a bunch of golden needles.
She grabbed the needles without any questions and opened the lock, watching both me and Eugene.
"Keep watch and make sure no one comes."
"And what If someone comes?" Eugene asked already panicking.
"Hyve code: deny everything." She said closing the door.
"That's not-!" Eugene tried to reply but the door was already closed.
"Uuugh..." He leaned against the wall,looking defeated already.
"I'm sorry Eugene I think I kinda dragged you with us~..." I said in half a teasing tone while Thing left my bag and stood on my shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, she looked she was already going to take me with you..."
"Yeah..."
"So..."
"Are you two...?"
COUGH COUGH
"Hey something wrong?" Eugene said worried about me,seeing me cough so loud.
"Yeah yeah I'm all right..."
"So as I was saying, I think both of you fi-"
COUGH COUGH
"Dude stop interrupting me!" He said realizing what I was doing.
"Why are you like this whenever I bring Wednesday up, other times I tried teasing you with other girls that talked to you and you just brushed it off and said that moths are attracted to the brightest light."
"But now I ask what class you have on Wednesday and suddenly you got the bees riled up because you jumped." He said pointing at me with his finger, and the hand on my shoulder nagging me about it too.
"It's different... she's a close friend ok...?"
"What difference is between her and Enid then? I see the same relationship."
"Well yeah but it's more like..."
"I don't know..."
"And I don't understand how I feel no matter how much I read,see or think about it." I said,the first time in many years my voice had a tone of uncertainty.
"Oh you're even worse than me with Enid then..." He said as I looked down,embarrassed even to myself, I wasn't even supposed to feel like this.
I've been feeding myself spoonfuls of information and all the things someone must know and more about interactions, I could pick up every single small gesture someone does without effort.
So why I was so confused with this, a moment I look down at her and yeah it's just plain Wednesday with a poker face, other times I look down at her and she's luring me down somewhere with puppy eyes.
'HOW DOES SHE EVEN DO PUPPY EYES?'
"Ugh..." I let out a scoff while I felt Thing patting my shoulder, somehow I knew he was going to do everything on his hand to help me out on this.
"Why don't you male a move then?" Eugene said breaking the silence.
"Move...?"
"Well before she joined she asked who was the other member, I said it was you and she didn't hesitate to say it'll be troublesome, and then still joined."
I looked at Thing at my shoulder and he moved his finger up and down indicating what Eugene is saying is true.
"What would even be a move..." I muttered,Wednesday isn't someone who blushes,smiles only seeing people scream in agony and despair and would love to dissect me and watch my voice change the more holes she opens in my lungs.
Thing dropped to the floor and started making signs, and the best translation I got it's that it could help me out in plans for Wednesday and me, and even push her to do more things with me without needing to just be about the mystery.
"Are you serious Thing?"
He nodded with his finger.
"Ok ok if you're both pushing me into it I will make a move ok...?"
"That's it!" Eugene said with smirk towards me,and Thing snapped his fingers in a similar manner to clapping.
"But I'm still confused about my feelings..."
But before anyone could've said anything else we started hearing footsteps,Thing immediately crawled back inside my bagpack and then I grabbed Eugene by his hand towards me.
"Excuse me, what are you doing here?" That woman who was supposed to take care, or at least put us to work in the fudgery asked standing there, at least our presence put her away from just entering.
"Well he! We I mean, well mostly him bu-" Eugene started stumbling his words together and I just pushed him aside,revealing a bloody nose.
"I'm just taking a breather after hitting myself against a wall..." I said wiping some blood with a tissue before it started running down to my lip again.
"Have you seen your Nevermore sister? The one with black eyes and sour face."
"No sorry she ain't around here..." I responded, thankfully Eugene was standing just in the right angle to stop her from watching the opened lock.
"Ok then." She said turning back.
"Uff that was close..." Eugene said leaning against the wall, a smile on his face.
The door opened and Wednesday came out, a frown on her face which only indicated she didn't find anything substantially useful.
"Anything?" I asked.
"Nothing that would ma-" she was going to respond until she saw my broken nose, she closed by to me and put a finger, before with both hands putting it back.
"Why aren't you healing back?" She asked wiping a bit of blood from under my nose and more came on.
"Don't worry I'm only stopping myself from healing back... we had an encounter with that woman from earlier..." I said putting my hand over hers.
"Immortal yet gets injured all the time..." She whispered taking a step back, and once she did I saw Eugene smug grin.
I wiped my nose with the same tissue and the bleeding stopped,the entire thing already healed, the only trace of my earlier broken nose being my watery eyes.
"Well why don't we go to the Weathervane and talk better there without any of this Pilgrim nonsense around..." I said turning my head to the side,expecting the same woman to come once she doesn't find Wednesday around.
"I'll tell you there what I've found." Wednesday and she started walking and before I did the same thing I put arm on Eugene shoulder.
"See you later then..."
...
...
"And I was about to give a tip..." I said watching Xavier serve both Wednesday and me a cold coffee.
"What are you two doing here anyways?" Xavier asked putting his hands on the table and leaning down a moment.
"Sneaking out as the rebellious teenagers we are." Wednesday said, half sarcastic half true, but Xavier didn't push at all once he realized whatever is happening he isn't invited.
"Ok then,want anything more and just tell me." He said going off to the counter.
"So?" I asked to my favorite goth girl(she's the only I know).
"Everything there was either a replica or just not real,even the house."
"So we didn't find exactly anything..."
"But I saw a picture, in there was Crackstone in the true meeting house with people around him, staring at the fourth wall the same girl who told me I'm the key, holding a black book which she also did in the memory." She said to me, at the end finally taking her coffee, hinting that she's done.
"So we need to find the old meeting house, see what we find or see if you get any vision again..." I said bored, this already felt like a cheap treasure hunt where we just find a hint to go from point A to point B.
"Basically. Unless you start using more of that ability you have." She said.
"Hmm?"
But before she could've explained she was cut by someone who just approached.
"Hey someone just told me I'd find you here..." Tyler said to Wednesday, almost ignoring me if it wasn't for the half smile he gave me.
"I'm just here for the privacy." Wednesday said while getting her hands inside her backpack.
"Do you perchance know something for... us?" Wednesday said, her eyes travelling to my position for a moment.
...
...
We were already in the woods; had to keep a pace since she was going to do something in the reveal of the Joseph Crackstone statue.
"How does he know about the search of the monster?" I asked to Wednesday, if she was telling everyone about this; it would make imposible to even track down the people behind this.
"He only knows what his father knows, so nothing far from what every normie knows. Only that they're sure the attacks aren't made by a bear..." She told me while the meeting house appeared in front of us inside the woods.
"Well I wasn't expecting it to be pretty but this one looks like it suffered even in it's times." I said opening the door for Wednesday to enter first.
"Well this is disappointing." She said looking at the burned down place.
"What are you two doing here!" What seemed like an impression of the ratman appeared from under a pile of rocks.
I instantly got myself next to Wednesday and Thing flee from my backpack to Wednesday shoulder.
"What are you little guys doing here...?" He said looking down at Wednesday.
"Call me little again and I can't guarantee your fingers stay where they should, afterall I can make him put them back after."
"Get out of here!" He said and as soon as his hand was raised I immediately knocked him down with a left hook.
"Well Wednesday why don't you try touching something?" I said gesturing towards the walls.
"It doesn't work like that, I can't just get visions by touching rotten wood and squatters land." She said touching a wood pillar.
"Oh visions." She said and then touched what looked like a fireplace.
"Do you see it working?" She said putting both her hands on a wall.
"Well so your visions are our only hints and they're unreliable to even appear..." I muttered when she opened the door, as soon as it swinger opened I saw her looking up into the sky with a lost face.
And as soon as I noticed her slipping down I grabbed her before she hit the ground,softly sitting her on the ground, her eyes closed like she was sleeping, but her hands were slightly moving like flinching.
I looked at Thing who just gestured me an affirmation.
"So this is how it looks when she has a vision." I said putting the back of my hand on her forehead, trying to see if she's warm or hurt.
Thing made a teasing gesture towards me while my hand softly went down towards her cheek.
"I'm not a perv I wouldn't kiss her when she's vulnerable!" I said flustered towards him.
I closed my eyes to ignore Thing who tried regaining my attention by snapping his fingers, but I only breathed in and out, calming myself down.
"Fuck you Thing, we only know eachother for a moment and you're already teasing me about it..."
"I saw her!" Wednesday woke up, putting her hands on my shoulders, one time emotion was without a mask on her face.
"Saw who?" I said putting my own my hands on her shoulders,to keep her down on the ground,maybe too preoccupied about what effects the visions can have.
"The girl in my other vision, her name is Goody Addams and there also was Joseph Crackstone!"
"He kept all these outcast inside the meeting house trapped and set the place on fire, only Goody escaped and somehow is calling me out for help." She said, her tone calming down while she cleared out her mind.
Then we heard a low grumbling sound,my ears perked up instantly and I immediately snatched Wednesday up to her feet.
"Let's go before something happens..." I said pulling her hand while I started running.
Even when she kept a tremendous pace, I was just able to run at my fastest without stopping, which meant I took her by the waist and kept running with her looking behind us.
"It's here!" She yelled to me while I could hear the monster closing by.
"Shit is fast!" I said, but finally the woods started clearing out into Jericho.
I pulled Wednesday up grabbing her in a princess carry so I immediately jump down,the fall breaking my legs down,but I still raised my arms up holding her up with no damage at all.
"Thank you." She simply said standing up.
She looked down at me, staring at my broken legs.
"What? I'll put them back together in a sec..." I said sitting down.
"I'm just interested in watching it happen."
"Of course you're you freak..." I said fixing my legs,the bones realigned and healed up, the way I didn't have any sort of reaction somehow made Wednesday disappointed.
"You don't feel pain?"
"I do, I just ignore it now, like something thar happens enough times to get used to."
"I see." She said grabbing my backpack,searching for our Nevermore uniforms.
"Let's find a place where to change."
...
...
I watched Wednesday sit aside of the chorus, her hands on her cello as she was getting ready.
She looked at my direction, I smiled at her with a half smirk and she returned the expression with a devilish smirk, the anticipation in her heart too high to keep in check.
Principal Weems stood in a podium next to the Mayor, both of them saying some words before the statue was revealed,a piece of cloth covering it.
While we were coming back Wednesday explained all she saw in her vision to detail, and now I can completely understand what it was, it was like any other moment in America.
Natives being pushed aside with force and their land taken, Joseph being the head of the stealing process, preaching as if his words and actions were backed up by God himself, I can assure he wasn't.
As soon as the mayor and Larissa stopped talking,the cloth was removed from the statue and the chorus started singing, Wednesday following along with her cello.
Maybe 1 minute in, Wednesday looked at me and I simply dropped her backpack,Thing hidden from everyone as he took a tinderbox and found a way put of everyone's line of sight.
As soon as he did I noticed the tiniest hint of a smirk on Wednesday lips, and I saw the small flare traveling on the ground, slightly scaring the chorus before it reached the statue from behind.
Then not so suddenly an explosion originated from below the statue, enough to make everyone scream and turn everyone into a running mess.
Me being the only one who kept his ass seated, while Wednesday changed songs, me recognizing it's winter from Vivaldi.
I started applauding through the chaos, my claps barely sounding through the mess of screams and the music.