arescere ✿ xavier thorpe

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30 - the grave digging truth

peter watched as wednesday made a beeline towards him, he wouldn't have time to run. and he took hide, but she'd find him anyways. she halted before him.

"where would you hide if you didn't want anyone to find you?" she questioned, raising ehr brow ever so slightly. wednesday addams didn't know something? unless she only asked him to confirm her suspicion.

"library." he wondered for an answer, a week ago he would have said his room. but he shares with that prick now, so that's a no go. he once hide in the old classroom behind a crying medusa. before coming to his final answer. he would hide in the library, more importantly his corner.

"interesting." and she motioned for him to follow. he groaned, looking towards theo who too motioned for him to follow. knowing it must be something he'd like to know. and so peter went. pulling down the sleeves of his grey jumper as he walked alongside wednesday addams. he figured out rather quickly who they were looking for, it was obvious the moral grey lady wasn't around. and it was obvious they weren't heading for the library. well, they were, he noted the second he stood before the statue of edgar allen poe. they were heading for the nightshade library. they conversed the stars. finding the women in black standing in the centre of the room. staring ahead as if she were a statue. still as one could be.

"hello mother." wednesday spoke. and she moved. morticia turning to find her daughter standing on the spiral stairs. beside a boy. a belfiore boy nevertheless.

"hello wednesday, peter." she commented glancing to the boy in brown cord trousers and grey jumper. he looked so much like the man in the painting beside him, it was uncanny. yet peters features were softer, it reminded her more of franciose. she too had the same belfiore features yet softer.

"so you're nightshades. living up to legacies," the women spoke, wednesday taking steps down the stairs towards her mother. where peter stood still. leaning over the railing slightly.

"denied." peter grinned slightly. watching the women grow confused. why would a belfiore be denied from nightshades? unless... his mother-

"and i rejected them." wednesday cut the women's train of thought off. stepping into the grey gloomy light of the library. the book still missing from the shelf. the book he knew to be hidden in wednesday room. he originally was going to hide it in his own, but he had a feeling xavier would snoop.

"why? because i was a member?" morticia questioned, watching her daughter's actions. she had changed so much, no doubt the consequences of a belfiore.

"i'll never live up to your legacy here, so why try?" wednesday spat back her response.

"i win the poe cup, you claimed it four times. i join the fencing team, you captained it. why would you send me somewhere i could only ever exist in your shadow?"

"it's not a competition, wednesday."

"everything is a competition, mother. but mostly i rejected them because they're a trivial prejudiced social club." wednesday glancing up to peter who still leaned on the railing. and so morticia was right, peter wasn't a pure peculiar. his mother was... normal.

"we used to be so much more. our mission was to protect outcasts from harm and bigotry. in fact, the group was started by an ancestor of your father's from mexico. one of the first settlers in america."

"goody. i saw her painting at pilgrim world."

"oh. how ironic since she was he one who killed joseph crackstone. the nightshades were her secret but deadly answer to his oppression. i know why you've come here wednesday."

"so go on, ask."

"father didn't kill garrett gates, did he?"

"no."

"you did." peter mumbled ever so softly. wednesday looking back at her 'friend' who was gliding down the steps. and morticia could only softly nod. shock riddled wednesdays face, something her mother hadn't seen since the death of her dead scorpion. her father an alleged murdered, and her mother was actually a murder. morticia frump had murdered garrett gates. and so she started explaining what really happened that night. peter learning the truth about the case of garrett gates.

"i'll never forget the way he looked a me. he was even foaming at the mouth. it was like i was staring into the eyes of a rabid beast." morticia spoke, soft yet truthful. every word inching the two closer to her. wanting to know more.

"your father took the blame, in order to protect me. i was so grateful when they cleared him of any wrongdoing. but i knew. someday this would come back to haunt us."

"you said garrett was foaming at the mouth? his eyes didn't look human." wednesday spoke, the cogs in her mind twisting and turning as she repeated her mother's words.

"i've never seen someone so blinded by rage." morticia cried softly.

"maybe he wasn't. maybe it's much more than just blind rage." peter spoke up, wednesday grinning lightly. he knew exactly what she was incisting before she had even spoke it.

"foaming saliva, dilated pupils, mental confusion." she continued with the textbook symptoms of-

"poisoned." peter recalled. but how? and why? he thought. poisoned, but why? had he boy taken drugs? maybe he had touched something in nevermore he wasn't supposed. like a flower. or he was trying to posion someone else and it had backfired?

"but how can that be?"

"there's only one way to find out."

and the shovels hit the dry dirt. two teens standing five feet down in a hole. morticia addams, stood tall above. not wanting to get her manicure dirty.

"you knew my father?" peter questioned, looking up at the graceful women as he shot more mud over the side of their hole. the tombstone darkened by the night, but it read the name of garrett gates.

"i did. i knew his sister as well, dear."

"who was she?"

"a monster."

"aren't we all?"

"no, my boy. she really was a monster. she was tainted by evil unlike any had ever seen before."

"she is not easy to describe, there was something wrong with her appearance: something displeasing, something downright detestable. yet others she was kind, conderside, loving. like two different beings in one." and wednesday’s shovel hit something hard. something wooden. peter climbed from the grave so she could pray it open. the crack of wood, and a rotten whiff of air: they found themselves looking down at the withering body of garret gates.but something was right. his features were stained. a purple in colour.

"nightshade." peter mumbled and wednesday looked up at him. if anyone knew anything of plants, it was him. and he was to be right. garret had nightshade poisoning. he was already dying when he was killed. morticia noticed the red and blur glow upon peter's face.

"go children." she begged. peter leaning to grab wednesday who shook him off. she was staring down at the dead body with a glint in her eye. she was happy. and so he disappeared into the night. hiding behind the tomestone of earl jewel from 1889 as the officer arrested the addams females.