The white raven

My savior?

        

        I feel the car stop and I sit up, Wednesday was waiting outside the entrance for me. Is she holding things? Oh no I hope he's okay. I rushed out of the car and rushed to her ash. She stared lifelessly at me. "Mother and father have been stalking us, after some brief discussion we have decided that he will serve me for the school year." She says as things jump from her hand to my shoulder. I giggled as he tickled the back of my neck. "It's good to see you too . How was your session?" I ask Wednesday. "Easy, escaped within five minutes of meeting her. I take it that you went full time?" She assumed, "Asked me about the accidents early in the conversation so I left." I shrugged. "We'll get out of here sooner or later, I promise." She said as we began our way into the dormitory.

      She opened the door to her dorm, Enid was blaring music on her side of the room. She looks up at me and rushes over to me only to stop for a moment. "You're not a hugger like she is, are you?" She asked, I smiled and opened my arms. She immediately brings me into a bone crushing hug that could put Gomez to shame. "Could you let go of my cousin?" Wednesday blurted out, if I didn't know her I wouldn't have picked up on the hint of jealousy in her voice. Enid lets go and skips over to her side of the room. "Well I'm gonna go, don't do anything I wouldn't do dear cousin!" I tease as Wednesday's eyes widen as I quickly leave the room.

 

      I headed away from the dormitories, I didn't really want to be in my room at the moment. As I walk towards the courtyard I feel a rough hand grab my forearm, bag my head, and drag me somewhere. I rip my arm from my aggressor and take the bag off, revealing a group of boys who look like they don't even go here. "What do you want?" I hissed. "Heard there was a family of murderers that go to this school, one of them being you. Freak!" He taunted. I try to walk away but two boys grab both of my arms and I begin to flail around. One boy flicks open a pocket knife, my heart begins to race. "We have to punish murderers, can't have them running about our town!" He yelled. He holds out my wrist and rolls up my sleeve, he cuts the word "MURDERER" into my forearm. I hiss in pain and wiggle free, I kick one in the crotch and begin to run towards the school.

     My lungs burned and the stinging sensation in my arm began to increase as I ran through the woods. The voices of the boy's shouting only made me run more. As I run further I see a figure ahead, I call out to the figure before tripping on a rock stuck in the ground, landing on my hurt arm. I hear footsteps getting closer and two arms help me up. I turn to see the four boys in front of us. The boy pushes me behind him protectively, acting as a barrier between me and the four boys. "What are you doing here? Go back to Jericho, there's nothing here for you." He ordered sternly. The boy and Xavier have a stare down for a solid minute before he waves his friends to follow him. "C'mon y'all, he wants to defend a killer then it's his funeral." He said before leaving.

     I pull my sleeve down and turn away, getting ready to walk away before he stops me. "Hey you don't deal with that and just walk away, are you okay?" He said as I turned to see it was Xavier. He placed his hands on my upper arms and inspected me for any injuries. "I'm okay, this isn't my first rodeo y know! Hahaha'' I try to laugh but my voice cracks. He pulls me close and wraps his arms around me, "if you're ever in danger, promise me you will come to me, we're friends remember?" He whispered to me. I nod my head and he lets go. He looks down at the blood stain on his uniform and looks up at me. "Where are you hurt?" He demanded. I look down and roll up my sleeves to reveal the still dripping wounds. "Cmon I'll take you somewhere private, we gotta treat this." He said as he took my other hand and led me towards a part of the woods.

     As we walked in silence I could feel the warmth of his hand, it's soft and I could see the tint of black from the charcoal he probably used for his art. I can feel the squeeze before turning to me and motions me to show it again, I lift my arm and he tilts his head to the side. He's reading it. His jaw tightened and his other fist balled up. "Why would they do this? We gotta tell Weems." He suggested. "No, no we can't, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone about this! Not Weems or Ajax or especially Wednesday." I panic. He tilts head, confused. "Y/n they could kill you, they called you a murderer! Something has to happen!" He raises his voice before stopping himself from saying any more. "Why would they carve this into your arm?" He asks. I looked down as my throat tightened. I swallowed and looked up at him, "I tell you when we get to wherever you're taking me, can we go now? I'm getting dizzy." I say.

    He complied and led me to a shack, he opened the door and invited me inside. "Sorry for the mess, I normally don't have guests in here." He said. I look around to see paintings of ravens, paintings of Wednesday playing her instrument, and one of me fighting Bianca. I look over at one painting and stare at it. It was of a creature, I feel like I've seen it before. Xavier steps in front of me and looks at me with a worried glance, "please do not be afraid, i'm not a killer or anything, I just have a lot of dreams about it." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It looks familiar, like I've seen it before." I say. Xavier grabs my arm gently and leads me to a stool. He puts a cream on the wound and wraps a bandage around my arm. After he's done he pulls up another stool and sits in front of me, "now do you care to explain why they called you a murderer?" He asked. "I don't know why they attacked me. If that's what you're asking, my guess is they got word of mouth from someone that there was a "murderous family" running amok in Nevermore, meaning Wednesday and I." I sighed. "That creature, you said you saw it in your dreams?" I thought. "Yeah, I'd rather not go into full detail about it but yea." He replied. I stand up and look up at the painting, I run my fingers across the canvas. Suddenly the painting moves, I jump back into a chest. I looked up to see Xavier, he smiled down at me and grabbed my shoulders. "It's okay, it's one of my perks I guess." He chuckled.

     I stared at the creature as it moved, the sound of screams suddenly filled my ears and I realized. "How long have you been having these dreams?" I ask, he lets go of me and I turn to him. "Not long, why?" He asks as he puts his hands in his pockets. "Because this is the monster that killed my entire family," I say he looks at me as his eyes widened slightly, "All this time everyone thought it was my fault the car crashed, I can't remember everything that happened but this'' I point to the painting, "This creature jumped onto the hood of the car I hit my head on the side of the car and everything went black. When I woke up, they were-" I stopped myself from saying any more.

    I look up at Xavier, He looks at me intently, waiting for me to continue patiently, "Wednesdays parents came and picked me up then sent me here to "start fresh"" I say staring off into the distance. I shake my head and take a deep breath. "It's in the past now, I just have to find and kill this creature. Then escape this place with Wednesday." I say. I turn to leave and he grabs me once again, "please don't leave, I know you two are close and something is going on between your parents but don't let that define you. Trust me I know." he said letting go. I give him a small smile, "You're strange, but I like that about you.'"I say and he laughs, "and between you and your cousin you're more human." I scoff and roll my eyes, "I'm just a little more open to emotions, there is still so much you don't know about me or the things i'm willing to do." I reply as I leave the shed. Leaving Xavier to his thoughts and his paintings.

   I walk up to the school and ahead I see Wednesday walking towards me, she looks pissed. As soon as I saw something on her shoulder I immediately knew he told her what had happened. She stands in front of me and grabs my arm, rolling up the sleeve. "Who treated this?" she asked. I tell her and she gives me a look. "Listen, I know we haven't really stuck together for a while but you have to trust me when I say this, Xavier isn't that bad as Enid rumors are saying he is." I argue. "You're letting him into your walls y/n, if you haven't noticed. I had three simple rules we had to follow." she deadpanned. "One; we are not staying here to become puppets to my mother. Two; no attachments and three most importantly; no getting close to anyone." she finished. "I'm not becoming a puppet to your mother! If I want to figure out what that thing was back then then I have to stay here and learn more about my mom!" i exclaim. "Thing? What thing?" She questioned. I sigh and explain everything that happened that night. "Xavier painted it, he saw it in his dreams." I say she gives me a pointed look. "Don't get any ideas dear cousin, Xavier wouldn't do anything to hurt me. Besides he's the only friend I have besides you and thing. So technically im only getting "attached" to one person, not a group of people." I smiled. Wednesday stared at me, pondering. "Fine, but the moment things go south I won't say I told you so." She stated as she turned and walked away. "Love you too dear cousin!" I shout it her and walk towards the courtyard with her, running to catch up to her and thing.

   Little did she know that they were watching the whole time.

MERRY XMAS EVE YALL! I won't be publishing tomorrow for obvious reasons :)