Wednesday had been trying to contact Goody Addams but so far no luck. She borrowed candles from the Séance Club, so October left her alone and went back to his dorm room.

"Oh, this came under the door, and I think it's for you," Ajax said, handing a piece of paper with magazine cut-out letters on it. He took it and looked at it:

If you want answers,
meet inside
Crackstone's crypt.
Midnight.

Answers to what? Who the monster is? Did Thornhill put that fire warning on the grounds? Wednesday had broken into Thornhill's actual room, but she found nothing of importance.

Ajax asked, "Are you going there?"

"Sure, why not?" October replied. He ended up going back to Wednesday's dorm room.

"I got this strange note," October said to Wednesday.

"I got one too," Wednesday replied. It was almost the same as Wednesday's, but the letters were different colors.

October asked, "Are we going tonight?"

"Obviously," Wednesday said.

So, at midnight, with Enid following, they were to Crackstone's crypt.

October muttered, "This guy killed outcasts, why are we going to his crypt?"

Enid shrugged.

As they reached the door, it sounded like someone stepped on the world's loudest tree branch.

Enid whipped over it, her claws coming out.

"You insisted on coming along," Wednesday told her.

"I can't let my bro go on a midnight excursion without me," Enid said.

Wednesday rolled her eyes, "You two are still on that whole 'bro' thing?" She went to the door and shined the flashlight around on the name.

"I hate this guy," October said.

The doors were cracked open.

"Seems like our wannabe Deep Throat is already here," Wednesday stated.

Something smelled like decay.

Enid sounded digusted, "Ew. What died?"

"Smells like childhood to me," October said and Wednesday nodded. "Let's go." He moved forward.

The tomb doors closed and October looked to see Wednesday following after. "Where's Enid?"

"She's going to be on look-out," Wednesday replied.

October moved forward and it sounded like whispering came from somewhere in the tomb.

They moved towards the middle of the tomb and there were more whispering sounds.

Wednesday called out, "Enid?"

They went in separate directions to look at caskets.

It sounded like someone coughed.

Wednesday asked, "Did you cough?"

"No," October replied.

"Whoever you are, show yourself," Wednesday said. She warned, "Try anything and you'll lose limbs."

"Surprise.

Happy 16th Birthday
Wednesday & October

Written on it in silver icing. It had sparklers and a grim reaper, holding a pink balloon, on it.

"Happy Birthday dear Wednesday and October," the group sang to them. "Happy birthday to you two."

Wednesday and October looked at the group together, before Wednesday turned around, and there was Thing, wearing a little black party hat.

"I should have known you were behind this," Wednesday said. "What part of 'no party under the penalty of death' do you not understand?"

"I thought my cake design was pretty inspired," Xavier said.

It looked nice, sure...

"The pink balloon was my little touch," Enid said. "Why don't you two make a wish?"

October looked anywhere but them. He noticed a section with candles. "Ooh, look, Latin." He and Wednesday went to it because anything was better than celebrating a birthday.

Wednesday started, "Fire will rain..."

"When I rise," October finished for her.

"Okay, that's not really a wish," Enid stated.

"The first part of that phrase was burnt onto Nevermore's lawn," Wednesday said. "It can't be a coincidence."

"Wait," Ajax said. "We're never eating that cake, are we?"

Funny. When they had birthday parties, they never ate the cake because Wednesday usually slammed October's face into it.

October watched as Wednesday started running her fingers along the Latin phrase and she promptly threw her head back. October grabbed her shoulders—

"Crackstone is coming."

It sounded like a distant whisper.

Wednesday was sprawled on him again and this time he shoved her away.

"Crackstone is coming."

That sounded closer.

They were on the grass.

October sat up and looked some gates. He shouldn't be here. He knew that much. Wednesday was the psychic one. He just saw events of the past. How did he block it out?

Wednesday got up to and looked at the gates. It looked like it led to a manor.

"Goody," Wednesday said. It looked like Goody was in the gates.

"You're the Raven in my bloodline," Goody stated.

"Wednesday."

It sounded next to him.

October turned. Goody was now next to Wednesday.

He shouldn't be here.

"I was told you could teach me how to control my ability," Wednesday told Goody.

"There is no controlling a raging river," Goody stated. "You must learn to navigate it without drowning. Time is not our side." She looked at the gates, "To stop Crackstone, this place you must seek."

October went to the gate.

Wednesday asked, "Do you always speak in riddles?"

Goody asked, "Do you always seek simple answers? The path of a Raven is a solitary one. You end up alone, unable to trust others, only seeing the darkness within them. It's rare that a Raven is born with a twin. Even rarer you have a twin who has Recognition and can join you in your visions."

"I have psychometry," October corrected her.

Wednesday asked, "Besides is that supposed to scare me?"

"It should," Goody said and vanished.

October was brought to by Enid and Xavier shaking him.

He was sprawled on Wednesday, who came to. She shoved him off of her. "You need to stop doing that."

He had a bloody nose. Again. "Need to start bringing napkins everywhere I go." At this rate, he won't have any blood left in him, which, is you know, kind of cool.

Yoko, that merman, and that girl who's name October never learned, was awkwardly watching. Where was Bianca at to make some snarky comment for them?

October asked, "Where's Bianca?"

Xavier looked like he didn't like the question.

On the way back to the dorm, after eating some cake, Ajax asked, "Okay, what the hell was that back there?"

October was confused, "What do you mean?"

"That whole—" Ajax mimicked Wednesday psychic vision stance, "And then you grabbed her and you did—" He widened his eyes and shook a little, like he got electrocuted, "And the both of you were on the ground. It was like Wednesday had a seizure and you just fainted at it. But at least you caught her because she probably would've gotten a concussion."

October shrugged, "It happens."

Ajax asked, "But, seriously, what the hell?"

October shrugged again, "Please, drop it."

"Fine," Ajax replied. "It was scary to see you both just drop like that." He moved ahead and October sighed.

Xavier asked, "Your sister had another vision, didn't she?"

"I guess," October replied.

"So, why did you zone out like that? Like your pupils were so dilated it swallowed up the irises when I went to check on you," Xavier said. "That happened when you were touching Rowan's desk for memories."

"Speaking of Rowan, his dad knows that he got killed by a monster," October said. "Rowan's dad actually allowed Weems to shape-shift into Rowan to make it seem like he got expelled to make sure that the authorities don't get involved."

Xavier nodded, "Okay, but that's not what I asked. I asked why you zoned out when Wednesday had a vision."

October shrugged, "I joined her in the vision. My mom said that my psychic energy collides with Wednesday's psychic energy, which dragged me into her vision. It never really did that before 'til that night in the woods at the meeting house."

Xavier asked, "What did you both see?"

"Just some gates with a manor behind them," October replied with a shrug.

"You know, your sister thinks I'm the monster," Xavier told him.

October nodded, "That she does."

"And what do you think?" Xavier asked, "Do you think I am?"

October stayed silent, "I can't rule it out. I mean, it is entirely strange that at the meeting house, you show up when the monster is there. You texted me asking where I was, and I said I was at the cave and then Eugene and I got attacked."

Xavier scoffed and muttered, "Unbelievable." He started moving ahead.

"But I don't think you did it," October told him quickly. "At this point I think Thornhill is the monster because she knew about the cave and caught it on fire."

Xavier looked at him, "Say if I was the monster, why would I attack you?"

"To fulfill a murderous rage and exert power over the victims, regardless if you're friends with them or not," October replied.

Xavier walked over to him, grabbed October's chin, turning his head so he can at the three scratches on October's face. He ran his thumb alongside the middle scratch.

This was getting a little to...intimate.

Xavier removed his hand before saying, "We should head back."

"Yeah," October agreed.

Xavier looked like he was going to say something. Whatever he was going to say, he must've changed his mind, because he said, "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," October replied.

His parents gave him a kit with supplies to commit more arson. Ajax got him a Stephen King book called The Shining. Enid got him a stack of black leather wristbands. Wednesday had gotten him the board game Clue. October had gotten her a board game called Kill Doctor Lucky.

"I think I've been hanging around you a little too long," Enid told him. "Yoko and I saw Lucas Walker standing on a ladder, cleaning the stained glass window, and I asked her if she wanted to go shake the ladder and see what happens. Yoko looked at me like, 'bitch, please no.'"

October laughed, "Wednesday did say that we're contagious."

"I just realized that now," Enid stated.

"You and your future wife are going to have some interesting children if I'll become an uncle to them," October said. "You know, I'll just be weird 'Uncle October' who might live in the basement."

Enid, confused, said, "Might live? You mean, you weren't planning on living in my future home's basement?"

"Sure, I'll live in your future home's basement," October told her.

Enid smiled at him, "Good."

October wasn't sure how she managed to make 'good' sound threatening, but she managed it. He was proud of her.

October got a text message and before he can look at it, Wednesday came over to them. She looked at October, "We're going to check on Eugene."

October nodded, "Okay."

October didn't check on Eugene, because he went to the Weathervane instead to get coffee for him and Wednesday before he went to see Eugene. There was just this underlying guilt that he had for not doing more to protect Eugene from the monster. He noticed that it looked like Tyler's shoulder was still sore.

October asked, "I never asked, but how did you hurt your shoulder, again?"

"Oh, it was at the Rave'N. I slipped on some paint and sort of dislocated it when I hit a wall," Tyler told him.

October nodded. He guessed that made sense. He broke his finger once by tripping over a rock. Tyler was looking at him, "Just wondering."

"It should take twelve to sixteen weeks to heal." Tyler said, "So, no heavy lifting for me."

October nodded, "Okay."

Tyler asked, "Hey, did you find that missing throwing knife yet?"

October shook his head, "No. I haven't." It dawned on him that never said anything about it to Tyler. "How—"

"Oh, Wednesday told me about it," Tyler replied, handing over two coffee cups.

October nodded, "Okay. I guess she did." There was an underlying feeling of suspicion. He kept his features neutral.

"Tell her I said 'hi,'" Tyler told him.

"Sure," October replied leaving the Weathervane.

Tyler just made his suspect list.

Dr. Kinbott was at the hospital when October got there.

"Hi," Dr. Kinbott greeted him. She was holding white roses. October preferred carnivorous plants himself.

"Hey," October replied.

"I haven't seen you or Wednesday since Wednesday session with your family, which was...certainly one I won't forget," Dr. Kinbott said.

October nodded, "Yeah. My family has that effect on people. We get banned from a lot of places. The recent place we got banned was Yosemite National Park."

Dr. Kinbott seemed confused at that. She asked, "How are things going between Wednesday and your parents?"

"Oh, our mother and Wednesday had a nice conversation between them. I was there when we got our hands dirty though, so I'm not entirely sure if I can say that they spent some time together," October said. "Oh, actually, she did have some one-on-one time with her, though."

Dr. Kinbott asked, "Oh, did you three do some gardening?"

"No, we went grave-digging and Wednesday managed to keep our dad from going to prison," October replied. "I was there but she did at least 99.9% of the work." It seemed like they were heading for the same door. "What brings you here?"

The door to Eugene's room was open.

"Goody warned me I was destined to be alone, and that I would be sorry for it," Wednesday was saying.

Dr. Kinbott cleared her throat and Wednesday turned around in her seat. She stood up, "Dr. Kinbott."

"October was telling me about the things you, him, and your parents had gotten up since the session with your family," Dr. Kinbott said. "Sounds like you had a...interesting weekend. Bonding over grave-digging and keeping your dad out of person."

"I did most of the work," Wednesday replied.

"He did say that you did 99.9% of the work," Dr. Kinbott stated.

"Which is true," Wednesday said. "I wouldn't hold it against him. He's not fully in his right mind sense the monster scratched him. What brings you here?"

"Eugene's moms, I'm working with them." Dr. Kinbott said, "Trauma like this leave emotional scars on the whole family."

Although once Eugene finally leaves his coma, he'll probably have scars on his torso too. Cool, he and Eugene can be Scar Buddies.

"They had to head home for a few days, so I promised I'd check in on him," Dr. Kinbott continued.

"We'll leave you to it," Wednesday said. She took one of the coffees from October and headed for the door.

Dr. Kinbott asked, "Who's Goody?"

Wednesday looked at her, "She's a very distant cousin. Very distant."

"Sounds like she doesn't see you for who you really are," Dr. Kinbott replied.

"She sees more than you know," Wednesday defended. She paused and added, "I want to assure you I remain as cold and heartless as the first day we met."

"I doubt a cold, heartless person would be sitting by her friend's bedside at least feeling some modicum of guilt for his condition," Dr. Kinbott said. "Or at least stealing her brother's roommate's bed for a few days to make sure he was still alive when you got up, or even changing his bandages."

Maybe October shouldn't have mentioned that.

"I didn't ask for a free session," Wednesday replied.

"Consider it a birthday gift," Dr. Kinbott replied with a smile.

How the hell did she know that?

Wednesday stared at her for a little moment, before grabbing October's arm and dragging him out the door.

Wednesday said, "Why did you tell her about that?"

"She asked if someone was there and I answered it," October said. "Why did you tell Tyler about my missing throwing knife?"

Wednesday paused, "I didn't tell him that." She looked at him, "Who else knows about it going missing?"

"Just you," October replied.

Wednesday said, "I'm going to the Weathervane. I have to speak to Tyler. You add him to our investigation board."

She took off.

An hour or so later, Tyler slid a coffee cup under her book. She glanced at it. It said Happy Birthday on it.

"I know you're usually a quad kind of girl, but I've been working on that all week," Tyler replied.

She looked at him. Serial killers normally looked like everyone else. She replied, "Birthday, yes. Happy, never. Is there anyone Thing didn't tell?"

Tyler asked, "Well, who do you think delivered the cake?" Wednesday looked at him. "Yeah, I went with the 98% dark chocolate ganache. Knowing your and your brother's...preferred color palette."

Wednesday stared at him, trying to pick out clues for him being the monster.

Tyler looked at the snood, "Oh, is that, uh...that Enid's gift?"

Wednesday looked at the thing, "It's perfect if you're fleeing a war-torn country on foot."

"Come on," Tyler said. "Don't you like a day that's all about you?"

"Every day is all about me," Wednesday replied. "This one just comes with cake and a bad song, while tacking my brother onto it, even though he was born at midnight, so technically he was born on the fourteenth not the thirteenth. It's just easier for us to say he was born on Friday the 13th."

Tyler looked like he didn't know what to say to that. "So, if I asked you out to a non-birthday, song-free dinner...would that be something you're interested in?"

She was more interested in getting close to a potential serial-killer. At least Tyler was someone that her brother wasn't interested in, though. Although it seemed like Xavier seemed to be a bit more interested in October as well. However, she had still needed to figure out when Crackstone was going to come back from the dead. That was kind of tied with the investigation on the monster. At least October was proving a bit more useful for finding a new suspect. Although if October could put away his heart for a moment, stop focusing on Enid, and try to get information out of Xavier, that would be good for their investigation. Although she didn't appreciate October telling Xavier about their vision of the gate.

"I have a tight deadline," Wednesday replied, "Emphasis on dead."

Tyler asked, "Term paper?"

Wednesday looked at him, "It's about how whitewashing the sins of our past will come back to kill us all."

Tyler nodded, even though he didn't seem to understand what she was getting at. She looked at a copy of the drawing of the gates. She took it out and slid it to Tyler.

He took it and unfolded it.

She asked, "Have you seen that before?"

Tyler seemed confused, "Uh...What's that supposed to be?"

How did he not know what it was supposed to be? Wasn't it obvious? She took it from him and folded it back up, "Never mind." She went back to reading.

Tyler asked, "Okay, did...did I do something? I just feel like ever since the Rave'N, you've kind of been ghosting me. Am I wrong?"

"I've been helping my brother change the bandages on his face and neck, since he got attacked by a monster," Wednesday replied. "I've been waiting to see if it will return to try and finish the job on him. That way I can kill it. Trying to kill my brother is my job and no one, not even a monster will take that from me."

Well, she was also busy studying Enid to figure out why October liked her. She figured out that Enid was into girls, and she was useful, considering how she clawed up the canoe at the Poe Cup and helped figure out who owned red boots so he can cross them off on the Red Boots list.

"You're really obsessed with that investigation board."

No surprise that it was Xavier.

"I added a new suspect to the list," October replied.

Xavier seemed amused, "Who is it this time?"

"Tyler," October told him.

Xavier was surprised, "The sheriff's son? I mean, I wouldn't say that he's harmless, but why?"

"I had something on me that night but it went missing. He knew that I lost it when he asked if I found it yet," October said. "He lied and said that Wednesday told him it went missing, but she never told him that I lost it. Only Wednesday and I knew that it went missing."

"Maybe he found it afterwards," Xavier replied.

October asked, "How would he knew that it belonged to me? He was at the Rave'N."

Xavier asked, "What went missing?"

"One of my throwing knives," October said. "I had thirteen, but now I have twelve. I searched for it, I had Wednesday try to find it with a vision, but it didn't work."

Xavier asked, "Why not use your psychometry to find out what happened to it?"

"I would if it wasn't scrambled from going four hundred years in the past since I couldn't go that far back," October replied. He took down a copy of Wednesday's drawing of the gate. "Hey, do you recognize this? Wednesday and I saw it in the vision."

"I think you need to work on the line work. It's a little shaky," Xavier told him.

"I didn't draw it, Wednesday did," October told. "I can't draw for shit."

Xavier looked at it, "I have a better drawing of it. I can show you." He left the hive and October wondered if he should stay behind or follow him.

He followed after Xavier, taking the time to check that text message he got in the morning. It was just a weird picture of Wednesday and Xavier standing together in front of the Fire Will Rise message on the lawn. It looked like the picture was sent by an unknown number.

Who is this? October texted back, but got no response.