Wenclair - hate to love

3.

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"You want to be alone, Wednesday? Be alone"

The words kept echoing in her mind as she sat on the floor of her now empty room. Thinking.

Wednesday had been given an ultimatum, one more strike and she'd be expelled. She was living on borrowed time, really. There was more than enough reason for principal Weems to get rid of her. She was expelled from her last school for a mere fish incident, after all.

She was also banned from being near Tyler, as the sheriff kept reminding her as he drove her back to the school. She had expected that once his old grudge with her father was done for, he would see reason and understand that, as lucky as she was to be near whenever something related to the beast happened, she wasn't directly responsible for any of the attacks.

She expected too much, it seems.

And Enid was gone. Off to Yoko's room for the foreseeable future. Her anger was justified, and expected to some degree. But it cut deep nonetheless. Her roommate leaving truly left her with the taste of failure.

Her snood, discarded on top of her bed, was the nail on the coffin. It was the only thing they could find back at the Gate's mansion.

Wednesday was alone. It wasn't something entirely new to her. But for the first time, it didn't feel as good.

It was a solitude that she felt inside and out. Not like the usual comfort of quiet she enjoyed, but like an unsteady tree that faces the weather alone, the forest around it murdered.

With nothing else to do now but think. She contemplated on the events that happened earlier in the night.

"How about I say I'm about to wolf out and get a pass to the lupin cages?"

That's what Enid had suggested. Excitement radiating off of her like waves.

To be fair, it was exactly what Wednesday had wanted her to say. She had carefully planned their interaction with that in mind. The way she would start the conversation, how to sell the idea, casually walking towards the window and looking at the moon, as if she wasn't aware of the night.

Deceit was as easy for her as breathing. But it had caught her off guard how Enid was so willingly playing her part.

"And say you volunteered to lock me in"

Wednesday had expected her roommate to need more convincing. If she was being honest.

For Wednesday, a task such as locking a werewolf in on a full moon, it was something to be earned. An honor if she was ever asked, a task she would complete with utmost care and respect. And Enid had shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

It certainly was something to think about. Had Enid thought about the implications? Of what it meant to place her trust on someone like that? To do or undo, to protect her inner wolf from the world, or let it run rampage in the wild, truly it wasn't a task delegated to just anyone.

And Enid had so casually offered that to Wednesday.

Sure, Enid hadn't wolfed out yet. But if she ever did, would she give Wednesday the honor of locking her up? The idea of doing something as intimate together gave Wednesday a better shock than any lightning bolt on the stormiest of nights.

Or maybe she just wanted an excuse to have a girl's night out, and she had come to the same conclusion as Wednesday. A simple lie to get both of them out of the school for the night.

Surely it had been the promise of quality time together what had fueled Enid's intentions, as opposed to Wednesday's need for answers. But it was still a means to an end. Nothing more and nothing less.

There was no point in losing herself to delusions.

Ironic how, now that she was alone, Wednesday's thoughts were plagued by the bleached blonde werewolf. She honestly thought that she was growing to tolerate her presence, little by little.

Perhaps she had to look deeper into herself to understand why part of her wanted to go knocking on Yoko's room to ask Enid to come back. So Wednesday let herself unfold and analyze more clearly her reaction, collecting data on her impulse responses to certain situations brought upon her by the werewolf.

She tried to piece together her emotions, for once.

Enid had, unbeknownst to Wednesday, burrowed into her chest. And so, when she left, Wednesday remained with a werewolf-shaped hole right inside her ribcage.

How painful, to only realize it now that she was alone. To not be aware of her addiction until she was cut off.

How maddening, to realize that she had come to take Enid for granted, now that she was gone.

How strange, to feel herself being pulled to the werewolf even now that she was nowhere near her. Just like the ocean feels the moon's pull, even throughout the day.

It was an error on her part, too blinded by her investigation to see the bigger picture.

And what use was the bigger picture now? There was no one but her to see it.

After all, Enid had made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with her now. And Wednesday would respect her wishes, even if it was tearing her apart.

It was the least she could do now, to respect Enid's wishes and stay out of her life. And live in constant agony from this day onwards.

In a moment, she would pull herself together and keep doing the only thing she had left. With no one else around, she could devote her time fully on figuring out the monster's identity.

In a moment, sure. But for now, she was alone.

And she would give herself a couple for seconds to soak in her loneliness.

"I miss her"

A quiet confession whispered into an empty room.

If a tree falls and there are no witnesses, does it still make a sound?