The Damned || t. galpin (on hold)

i hope he ain't dead

The cool evening air is soothing on Cameron's skin, and the buzz of carnival games fuzzes her mind into peaceful bliss. Her reverie is interrupted by the loud clanging of metal cans as Wednesday shoots them down one at a time with a bright red ball. Cameron scoots away.

"You don't have to pretend to like me." Wednesday deadpans.

"Who said I liked you?"

"Then why are you hanging around me?"

Cameron sighs, "Can't I just stand here and enjoy the atmosphere."

"This place has less atmosphere than a kid's party that nobody bothered to show up to." Wednesday shoots back. 

"Okay, jeez. I'll leave you alone." She starts backing away, Wednesday turns to shoot another ball but stops mid-swing. 

"I'm not taking him away from you. I just need him to drive me out of town." Cameron looks at her incredulously, "I mean Tyler. You two can go back to looking at each other all sappy-eyed after I'm gone."

"Why have you decided that you hate me?" Wednesday throws the ball, hitting all of the cans down with a single strike. One pile remained, but she didn't move to pick up the ball.

Wednesday turns to face her, assessing her from head to toe. Cameron never wore many colors, but compared to Wednesday she looked like a whole freaking rainbow. "I don't hate you. I just don't think you're deserving of my time."

"So you find me annoying. Close enough." Wednesday sighs. Taking the point, Cameron sits down at a nearby table as the man behind the counter puts a panda in front of the still-scowling Wednesday. Just as Cameron sits down she sees Xavier take her spot at the counter, chatting Wednesday up more effectively than she had been able to.

Just then, something white catches her gaze. Weems sits down at a nearby table, slowly munching on a burger, her eyes never leaving Wednesday. She didn't know much about Wednesday, but nobody deserved to have their privacy taken away like that, especially not by the head of the school. Cameron moves to sit down and try to distract the headmaster when suddenly the sky explodes. A primal fear grips her, making her heart thrum.

It's just fireworks. 

She tries to steady her breathing and simultaneously not hide under the table. As she's blinking the sparks from her visions she sees that Weems and Wednesday have both disappeared. Everyone's gaze is distracted by the fireworks, but she can see Wednesday's black and white-clad figure slink between the stalls. 

Deep in her stomach, Cameron feels that something is wrong. The wrongness seeps into her bones and through the air around her, and it comes from Wednesday. As stealthily as she can, she follows the girl as she weaves through the fair. She's almost hit by a pigtailed head as her head snaps back, Tyler catches her just in time. Her eyes roll back, she smells of fear, or maybe that's just Cameron's power acting up as she tenses. 

What feels like an eternity passes, but eventually Wednesday comes to, her eyes swiveling back. She doesn't say a word and rushes off into the crowd that has gathered. Tyler runs after her, with Cameron trailing behind, not sure if she wants to know what happens next. 

Tragedy is in the air, the fear that percolated through Cameron's senses has now spread through the entire crowd, her power allowing her to sense the unique blend of confusion and fear, they don't know what they're so afraid of. Cameron realizes that the fear she feels from them is her'. Her body responded to the fear by spreading it evenly among the people around her. She sighs, she doesn't know if she'll ever be able to get this part of herself to go away. 

Her brain feels like it's been strung out on all the trees around her, her thoughts scattered through the minds of those around her. She slowly reels her consciousness back, when the headache comes back. No no no no not now please, not now. 

W: Sometimes it's hard, but sooner or later every man shows himself.

The pain stops, and Cameron curses the universe. It had wasted her time by showing her possibly the most useless message ever. What did that even mean?

She takes off in the direction that she had seen Wednesday take, to try and stop the tragedy she could feel in her mind had already occurred. She reaches the edge of the woods when a scream cuts through the air. Her blood runs cold it's too late. She hesitates at the edge of the wood, not wanting to face whatever she found inside. 

She stands, frozen, for a couple of moments before a blur slams into her. 

"Call the police." She stammers.

"What?"

"Rowan's dead."

Hours later, Cameron finds herself escorting a blood-soaked Wednesday to the headmaster's office. Once she's there, Wednesday sits down, pretending that Cameron doesn't exist. A police officer comes up to her, leading her into the office. Another comes to Cameron, pen, and paper all ready in hand.

"I need to ask you a couple of questions."

"Go ahead," Cameron stares at the wall behind the woman. The woman adjusts her glasses feebly, oblivious to Cameron zoning out.

"What's your name?"

"Cameron May."

"And you were at the festival yesterday?"

"Yes."

"And where were you when the attack occurred." 

"Watching the fireworks."

"Okay." Cameron shifts in her seat uncomfortably. "How long have you known Wednesday Addams."

"Met her yesterday."

"Did she behave strangely yesterday, like she was hallucinating, or like she was under the influence."

"She was acting no weirder than I knew her to act."

"Thank you, we may need you at the police station for further questioning. So please fill out this form." Cameron combed through the bureaucratic nonsense, filling out only the field for an email address before leaving the paper on her seat and making her way back to her dorm. 

Sitting down on her bed, she closed her eyes. Thoughts flowed around her like rivers, some gushing at thirty miles an hour, and some just little streams, trickling through her mind space lazily. She didn't focus on any of them, she kept looking, making sure, that the five she feared most were not nearby, but she couldn't feel them at all. 

She didn't notice herself falling asleep until thin rays of sunlight passed through her windows, waking her up from her peaceful slumber. Someone was rushing down the stairs, Cameron threw the door open, still in her day-old clothes. She followed the sound of footsteps down into the quad. 

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the figure, slowly walking toward Weems' door.

"Rowan?"

A/N: I honestly don't remember if it was darts or the game where you throw a ball at cans and I felt like the cans would be better. 

-beanz