Friday Addams || Xavier Thorpe

10

Wednesday and I were called into Principal Weems' office for a brief meeting with Sheriff Galpin. It seemed as if he didn't believe that Rowan was murdered. Most people didn't and assumed we were making up the whole story for attention. As much as my twin is a fan of morbid tales, I know that she would never lie about watching someone get murdered in the forest shortly after he tried to kill both of us. We were on our way to the office when I spoke up, "How could you miss a dead body?"

"'Cause it wasn't there. No footprints, no blood, no sign of a struggle. Nothing, nada. My search party looked all night," the sheriff replied. We turned toward the stairs and began crossing them to reach the next level of the building.

"Well, your search party must have left their seeing-eye dogs at home. We saw that monster kill Rowan right in front of us." Wednesday grew increasingly impatient by the second as she wanted to see that monster caught.

"Get a good look at this monster thing?" I couldn't imagine how he expected us to remember what the monster had looked like when he was attacking. I had been too full of shock during Rowan's murder, and fearful of the monster, to pay attention to its details.

"It didn't stick around for a chat." The responses came quickly, one after another in a battle of wits.

"It is a little hard to focus on a monster when it's murdering your classmate," I spoke up.

"Maybe it was one of your classmates." The statement caused the tall principal to pause her walk to the office. She leaned against one of the stair railings and glared slightly at the sheriff.

"Sheriff, I find that question offensive." She had focused on him, having tried to make this school a place for outcasts to be safe from horrible stereotypes. She didn't want them to feel the suspicion of the normies about the mysterious murders. I could somehow tell from the emotions brewing in her eyes what she desired for this school and that she had recently done something mysterious herself.

"I don't care, 'cause I got three other dead bodies in the morgue. Hikers just ripped apart in the woods." I could see the creases of frustration evident on his face at being unable to catch the monster. Nevermore holding his most potential suspects.

"The mayor said those were bear attacks." Principal Weems was having a full argument with the sheriff while my twin and I stood near, watching the event take place.

"Well, the mayor and I disagree on that."

"So you automatically assume a Nevermore student is the murderer, even though there's no evidence a crime was even committed."

"I'm sorry. I forgot, you only teach the good outcasts here, right?"

Principal Weems sighed deeply, wishing for him to understand, and continued leading us to her office. She opened the large wooden doors and strode inside before declaring her assumption. "My guess is Rowan ran away. State troopers have put out an alert, and I've contacted his family, but they haven't heard from him either."

"Dead people are notoriously bad at returning calls."

"I have to agree with my sister on this one," I spoke. Principal Weems tilted her head at our responses while Sheriff Galpin pinned his attention on both of us, rather than Weems. It did take the two away from the principal's incorrect theories and the Sheriff's insistence it could've been a Nevermore student.

"What were both of you doing in the woods, Ms. Addams'?"

"I heard a noise in the forest and went to go investigate. That's when I stumbled upon the attack," my twin explained our cover story in a calm manner. She definitely did not want the sheriff or Weems to know about her visions.

"I followed Wednesday out of curiosity and to try to protect her, sisters stick together."

"Then what happened?" He continued his line of questioning, attempting to get the full story.

"We ran into Bianca Barclay, and I told her to go for help." This part was entirely true. After we ran out of the woods, I stumbled upon Bianca in my search for Xavier. In my stupor, I asked her to go for help before copying my sister in blacking out from shock.

"Next thing we remember, we were waking up in our dorm," Wednesday finished for me.

"And just to be clear, this monster wasn't a bear or some other wild animal?" I could see where he was coming from with this question. We didn't offer an amazing explanation in the description and could have mixed it up with something else.

"I've hibernated with grizzlies, I know the difference." I remembered my twin asking our father to take her to the woods specifically to allow her to hibernate with the grizzlies for a full week. It was one of the few activities I left her to do alone, not wanting to stay with the grizzlies.

"Thank you, Sheriff. I think they're both done now." The principal wanted the meeting over as soon as possible. She most likely wanted us out of the sheriff's watch, but I also felt as if she were trying to cover up something herself.

"Actually, I would like to speak with Sheriff Galpin. Alone. With the exception of Friday."

"I don't think I can allow that." Weems had been sitting poised in her seat and briskly stood.

"I'm sure I could take them to the station and get a formal statement." Sheriff Galpin wanted to speak with my twin as well, knowing she had information.

"Yeah, let's go," I said, somewhat enthusiastically.

The tall blonde's lips thinned into a straight line. "Fine. You have five minutes, and everything is off the record. Play nice... or I will call the mayor." The door opened as she walked out of the room and left. Wednesday instantly got into business mode, having a plan inside her head.

"Someone is trying to cover up Rowan's murder. That's the only reason to scrub the crime scene," she voiced her opinion on the matter.

"Is that your professional opinion as the daughter of a murderer?"

"Our father is twice the man you are, and the only thing he murders is the occasional opera in the shower," my sister snarkily replied.

"Even then, he's probably a much better singer than you are." My twin looked at me strangely, wondering why I had made a comment that didn't have much to do with the conversation. I shrugged, Enid had been rubbing off on me.

"It's been a long night. I'm tired of your games." He rubbed his eyes with a sigh as he spoke before looking up at us.

"I'm not playing games. I'm telling the truth. You want to reject our claims but you can't. Why is that? Because we all know there is a monster out there. And Rowan is his latest victim." I could see the unease in his eyes at the statement because he knew she was correct. He knew there truly was a monster, we had seen it with our own eyes.

"I saw a giant monster tear Rowan up in the forest. We don't know why it didn't attack us, but it was real."

The tension in the room was cut when the door opened and someone walked in, searching for the Sheriff. "Sheriff?" It was a woman with dark brown curly hair. She was wearing the uniform of the local cops, probably working under him.

"What?" He answered, turning away from my sister to face her.

"You're going to want to see this." The door opened further to reveal a smiling, perfectly alive Rowan. His smile grew to the point where it was too awkward for him to hold properly and once again, I could hear my twin's thoughts.

Edgar Allen Poe once said, "Believe nothing you hear and half of what you see." Clearly Nevermore's most famous alumni picked up on that here. No wonder he became a drug-addled madman. And for once, I completely agreed with her thinking patterns because there was absolutely no way Rowan could've survived what happened to him in the forest.