This was no fitting end for Wednesday Addams.

An angry Eugene was cursing loudly and forcing his bees to attack Ms. Thornhill just a few yards away, and she wished she could've enjoyed the screams. But instead, here she was, slumped on the ashen ground with her head in Bianca Barclay's lap.

Wednesday's fingers rested over the bullet wound in her stomach. It had hit directly where the blade wound would've been, had Goody not healed her up only for Wednesday to go and get shot.

The world was quiet and too loud at once, and through the murky film covering her brain, Wednesday was disgusted with herself. Her death would not be slow, it would not be imaginative, and it would not be unsolvable.

What a waste.

Blood-slick hands were holding her face. She was vaguely aware that Biance had been talking frantically to her since she had hit the ground with a bullet buried deep in her gut.

The pain was distant, a mere shadow- though the blood was hard to miss. Wednesday could feel it pulsing up through her fingers, filling her mouth and dripping past her lips. It was warm and familiar and she wanted to find comfort in the crimson pool that surrounded her, soaking the grass, her back, her legs, Bianca's jeans. But unfortunately, being shot wasn't nearly as fun as she had hoped it would be.

Her body was shaking, muscles spasming as she bled out and choked on the blood filling her throat and caking her tongue. Bianca was tilting her onto her side to help her spit it out, but the action had her stomach convulsing, the pain finally showing itself in white-hot lances that spiked violently through her body.

Wednesday screamed, curling in on herself as twitching limbs made feeble attempts to wrap around her stomach as if she could hold her innards where they were supposed to be. The buzzing in her head was a roar, the numbness in her extremities a pulsing cold that gripped her spine and slewed through her bone marrow.

She was dying, she knew that, of course. An inferno was raging in her belly as it spit itself out, coating her hands and the ground in gore.

What will Enid think, when she finds me like this?

Doesn't matter. I just hope she's safe.

——

Enid's body felt like it could fall apart like an old jenga tower at the smallest breeze. She stumbled along through the darkness back to Nevermore, the cold biting at her through her coat. Her skin was bare and drenched with blood underneath it, throbbing in every possible place from her fight with Tyler's Hyde.

Thing was scrambling behind her, watchful and restless. Enid was flagging the closer they got to the school grounds, her feet catching painfully on branches and hardened ground as she hurried along.

"I just- I need to get to Wednesday," was her mantra, choked words from a dry throat and bleeding lips, her lungs working hard.

Suddenly there was Ajax running towards her, and she stopped, her heart racing as her eyes saw a male silhouette that had her skin itching to wolf out and burn the world down to get to Wednesday. But she held her breath and finally released it when she was sure this person was safe, that she didn't need to fight anymore.

He walked to her, gently taking her into his side and helping her walk along to where the mass of Nevermore students were huddled. She felt her blurry eyes darting around, and her gaze sharpened when it didn't find obsidian.

"Where's Wednesday?"

Silence.

Enid felt a wail building in her chest as anxious looks were passed and mouths stayed shut. She scrambled to Yoko, falling into her best friend's arms as she shook her desperately. "Yoko, where's Wednesday? Where is she?"

The vampire could only gape and shake her head sorrowfully. "We don't know, Enid. We- we don't..."

And Enid was howling, her wolf snapping itself up to sniff anxiously at the wind, a snarl ripping itself out of her throat. She leapt over the students surrounding her, bounding on strong legs fueled by adrenaline and terror so potent she could feel it drip from her teeth.

The scent of blood hit her so strongly that she stumbled and fell to the ground in a crash of fur and claws, up again in a second, now racing even faster. The next scent was Wednesday's. Wednesday, who smelled like ink and fresh earth and funeral lilies. Wednesday, who she could hear crying out for her gasping for breath.

Wednesday, who was lying on the ground and drenched in her own blood as her chest heaved.

Enid's body snapped back to its weaker form. She hit the ground running, the skin of her feet bleeding on the pavement. She was unclothed and bloodied and sore but Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday-

The bones in her legs jolted as she threw herself to her knees next to Wednesday, taking the girl who looked impossibly small into her arms. Bianca wisely scoots back, her face streaked with blood and tears.

Wednesday's body stills the second she sees Enid above her. Enid, in turn, is sobbing and scrambling to press a shaking hand over her stomach to staunch the flow of blood because there is so. Much. Blood.

"Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday I'm here I'm so sorry oh my god please don't die please please..." she wailing and holding her close, and Wednesday is silent and calm in her arms, pressing into her. She grabs Enid's hand, and the werewolf looks down to her, baby blues wide and full of tears.

Enid can feel her heart wrenching in her chest with horror as Wednesday just lays there and holds her hand, lips twitching into a bloodied ghost of a smile as she bleeds out there in the ashen quad. "You're alive." Her breath is a death rattle in her throat, but the pain and fear have vanished from her eyes, leaving an obsidian pool brimming with calm.

"Don't you- don't you dare d-die on me," Enid hiccups, shoulders quivering as she tucks her roommate even closer still. She's vaguely aware of Eugene and Bianca both crying and calling for help, but all she sees is Wednesday.

"If you- of you die on me, Wednesday Friday Addams, I swear I will kill you." Enid is cradling her, choking for air and cupping her face. She's so small this way, so broken. It isn't right. Everything about this is wrong.

"Enid," Wednesday mutters, her hand coming up to the werewolf's cheek, where blood has already drenched it. "That's the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me." She watches her, watches as Enid crumbles. "Cara mia... I'm..."

"No, no goodbyes, because you are not going anywhere, you, you're not..." Enid can't breathe past the heart in her throat. Blood is clogging her nose and burying itself under her nails.

"Enid." A quiet voice, softer than she's ever heard it before.

"Sei la stella più luminosa nel mio cielo annerito, Enid," Wednesday whispers, blood dripping from her lips. "Non piangere. Ti perseguiterò con le ombre eterne del mio cuore contorto finché non ti unirai a me nel mondo al di là di questo. La mia anima infernale è tua per sempre."

And Enid, who had been learning Italian for Wednesday in secret, wails softly back. "Inciderò il tuo nome nelle mie costole in modo che tu possa annidarti nel mio cuore e riposare finché non mi reclamerai dalla Terra."

Wednesday smiles at her, foggy eyes drooping. "Sounds perfect. Ask my parents to help you with that one," she rasps.

Enid doubles over the girl dying in her arms, holding onto her tightly as if she could keep the life inside of her by sheer will alone. She whispers her name over and over again until she stops breathing, and even then, no one can get her to let go.

She feels her heart crack, spiderwebs of horror crashing over its sharp surface, glowing red hot before it shattered with a guttural howl that painted a foul taste on her teeth. It dripped through her chest, ate away at her lungs, chewed on her nerve endings until they sputtered and died right along with Wednesday.

Enid slumped into the lifeless body of her mate, trembling harshly. Her claws had shot out, and they dug into Wednesday's cold skin as she tried desperately to tuck the girl into her chest, wrap her up in her intestines and keep her safe.

It should've been me.