Chapter Text
Wednesday’s child is full of woe.
It was one of the first personal anecdotes Wednesday willingly gave Enid about herself after settling in their dorm that initial night. And because Enid wanted to know positively everything about her gloom-ridden new roommate—for her blog, of course—she looked up the old nursery rhyme the moment she had the chance.
It was basic enough. The kind of thing her parents or grandparents might have learned at some point in their youth. Interestingly, she discovered there was considerable variation and debate about the exact attributes each day was given. Unlike modern versions in which the famous statement was true, an early incarnation of the rhyme showed that: Friday's child is full of woe.
It didn't mean anything to her at the time, but that old anecdote came to mind now because, while the variant statement still technically applied to her roommate, Enid was also born on a Friday and could argue that woe was all she knew at the moment. If the word woe was shown to someone in the dictionary, Enid would've felt completely justified pasting a picture of her face right next to it. Enid was so deep in the drudgery of it that Wednesday would surely be jealous of all the woe she was experiencing.
Day, after day, after day, after day…
That is, if she ever told her roommate about it.
Technically, there was no reason for Enid to hold back. In fact, she could tell Wednesday Addams absolutely anything she wanted and have zero fear of any judgments or repercussions that might come about from it. Enid could spill every secret that slept deep in her heart—every fear that fueled the infrequent night terrors she awoke from, or even whatever mundane thoughts rolled around in her head—and not have to worry about the anxiety of self-consciousness that came with confessing any of it.
The problem was…Wednesday wouldn’t remember. Enid would.
Enid remembered everything now because Enid, and Enid alone, was stuck in an honest-to-goodness time loop.
A time loop. Time. Loop. Time. Loop.
The phrase was strange on her tongue. It was a concept used in sci-fi movies with fantastical plots that she occasionally watched on days after her mother had taken her to visit yet another doctor who did nothing but strip all confidence from her werewolf nature and have her wish for her own gestalt reset for a change. It was a phenomenon that, even in a supernatural world where close friends were vampires and roommates admitted to mentally vision-ing themselves into the past, was just too freaky a concept to really think was possible.
So it was no wonder, now, being stuck in an endlessly repeating day, that Enid blamed Wednesday for it all.
Not for causing the incident, though the jury was still out on that, but for the fact that after Wednesday showed up to Nevermore, Enid had been personally roped into more deviously supernatural spooky happenings than anyone should have bargained they’d get into after innocently enrolling at a school for Outcasts. She signed up for the occasional stoner incident or a wolf out gone wrong—not the horrific murder spree that happened last semester, and definitely not whatever the hell was happening to her presently.
Enid had only longed to have a semi-normal school life: know the unknowns of gossip around campus and the nearby town, date her current crush, get good grades, and be the kind of werewolf that would make herself proud.
Simple things.
At least now it seemed she had the chance of getting that.
Over and over and over again.
LOOP #3
At first, she thought she had to be dreaming.
Mainly because Enid embarrassingly didn’t recognize that anything was amiss for the first two loops. In her defense, the loop began and ended on a single Friday ahead of a rare three-day weekend off from school. And weekends at Nevermore were usually one of two things: repetitive or uninspired.
Not to say a weekend at a school for the supernaturally inclined was boring…but a school was still a school at the end of the day. Normie or not. Especially for a weekend so near the start of a new semester. The days on campus were filled with students trying to do as much as they could with their first stretch of true free time. Everyone was either still getting their bearings around campus or preparing for their first major tests in the weeks to come. Friends hung out, still riding the fading high from break, or they were doubling down on familiarizing their set routines for the rest of the year—typical student life. Simple things.
Enid Sinclair, prideful of her role on campus, would happily describe herself as a typical student.
Did she take advantage of the long weekend to mainly catch up on sleep? Yes, but Enid was a growing girl and werewolf who was still adjusting to everything that personal circumstance specifically entailed. It didn’t help that since the semester had started, her mother had taken the role of calling her daughter almost every day to nose her way in on Enid’s progress and mental state. That, by itself, was exhausting to manage for any sane person. So if she wanted to skip out on a long weekend of socialising and fresh gossip to finally have her mother off her back…then Enid was perfectly okay with accepting that loss.
That first Friday, she chose to sleep in, refusing an invitation to town from Yoko, and only woke up when the cravings of lunchtime forced her out of the room. Then it was back to bed until dinner and a mini spa night with Thing as the remaining dregs of sleep overtook her. On the day she thought was Saturday, Enid begrudgingly took up the repeated invitation and spent the afternoon with Yoko downtown, and did little else but walk for a bit and head back to the dorm to resume her sleep. Her not-Sunday was spent in the library, comfortably napping and scarcely studying for a test she had that following week in class.
Uneventful. Typical. Simple.
It was far from Enid’s fault that she failed to realize she had been thrust into the equivalent of a late-night made-for-TV movie plot.
It wasn’t until she woke up on not-Monday, refreshed and ready to tackle her classes, that she realized something was terribly wrong. Only made more clear the exact moment Yoko barged into her room and asked if she wanted to go into town later for lunch. Something the other girl had already asked and done in the subsequent days before. The same tone, the same inflection, the same outfit.
It was a level above déjà vu…and thus, Enid was trapped in her recurrent woe.
LOOP #15
Enid had learned a few things:
- This was not some horrible dream. (No matter how much she wished it was.)
- The loop restarted at 11:45 PM every night.
Wednesday possibly- Everything and everyone followed the same routine the entire day, unless there was direct interference from Enid.
- There was nothing that could be done to influence any change for a future loop.
- Everything reset except her own memories.
- No one was trying to murder her or her friends. (As far as she could tell...which was honestly the most relieving discovery. Yet she remained vigilant.)
Wednesday was really- No one else was experiencing this with her. (A fact that invited deep depression and fear.)
- It was exhausting trying to get someone to believe her.
- She was really glad her thing with Ajax fizzled out.
Wednesday maybe was a- Enid was lonely.
She treated it as a game at first. Because why wouldn’t Enid take advantage of the apparent freedom she now had and not copy what so many teen movies told her was fun to do when the consequences of her actions had no bearing of punishment.
So she started modestly, doing what she thought a normal delinquent was capable of—with some restraint, of course. She still had morals.
Typical things. Simple things.
Small acts of vandalism where no one would notice, trespassing in student-restricted areas, and just being the most rule-abiding menace she could be. Though a line was drawn at venturing into the more hidden areas of Nevermore. Enid wasn’t sure if death was something that could affect her, and she wasn’t about to test the theory. Especially with the secrets this school definitely still held in its mysterious depths.
An odd consequence Enid didn’t expect was how each small act of rebellion ignited something invigorating within her. It was a powerful feeling. Not in the aspect of strength but of a release of apprehension. A dormant part of her inner wolf or some form of normal teenage development, maybe? Either way, it made her wonder if this was how her brothers felt all the time. She always used to think their rambunctious tendencies skipped over her, but maybe that wasn’t totally true. Maybe she just needed cause.
After that revelation, it was easier to let the little voice in her head take the reins and allow her to act more brashly, but since that type of behavior wasn’t truly in Enid’s nature, the spark quickly faded after a week, and she started to grow bored. Thankfully, no one reacted strangely or overtly weird to her antics, nor did she feel any scrutinized attention on her day-to-day delinquency. In fact, Enid was a bit disappointed regarding the security on campus with how unnoticed her contained teenage rampage went. Which, truth be told, was a blessing in disguise because, as much crazy shit as she’d gotten into the past semester, her offbeat behavior did allow her to rule out any potential threat toward her.
A lack of psychotic murdering was a win in her book, but still begged the question of what the hell was going on…
For the next loop, she obsessively made notes on who, if anyone, had it out for her. It ended up being a short list, which only made her irrationally wonder if she should have more enemies. Which then led to the illogical suspicion of her mother for a brief moment. That was a phone call Enid would not be repeating anytime soon.
The capability for someone to be able to manipulate time was already beyond anything Enid knew of what normal Outcasts were capable of. Then again, up until last semester, Enid didn’t believe the resurrection of a centuries-old homicidal pilgrim was something that could ever be possible. So maybe allowing for some suspension of disbelief was warranted. Either way, Enid was at the end of her rope. Loops were passing by and she was no closer to figuring out a way forward. A slow-growing sense of paranoia wasn’t helping and only added to her frustrations. Thus started the enlistment of her friends to help solve her temporal conundrum and build some illusory sense of stability in this new normal.
Much like how she approached her delinquency, simplicity seemed to be the safe bet: find a friend, plead her case, take notes. She learned two things with this method—how much her schoolmates trusted in Enid as a person of reasonable merit, and just how susceptible into believing the weird supernatural shit the Nevermore student body went through on the daily.
Ajax was her trial run—mainly to get the awkward tension out of the way.
It went as expected. Any good-hearted person like Ajax would do what they could to help a friend, but the complex situation of it all tripped him up in the end. While Enid appreciated his genuineness, she made the decision to avoid him in any subsequent loops. Even though he seemed fine after their breakup, Enid could see his forlorn gaze as they spoke and suspected it wouldn’t be as simple as just being friends again. Plus, having an ex be the only person to know what was happening to her could send him a message she did not want to pile on top of an already stressfully confusing situation.
So, with that failed interaction on her belt, it didn’t make any sense why Enid then thought to seek out Xavier at all.
He wasn’t the type of guy she talked with or was ever around much while at Nevermore. Unless you counted the times he was around Wednesday—and that already put a bad taste in her mouth, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with Wednesday’s focused attentions. Regardless, the choice was justified as a ‘get the unfavorable ideas done with quickly’ tactic, and also because he had the most consistent schedule to ambush. Which was to say he didn’t do much. Xavier was…nice. He had no reason not to be cordial to her and vice versa, so it served Enid essentially as a true practice run for the future. A way to iron out what worked and what didn’t when trying to explain her predicament. It took some convincing and a bit of trial and error to find the right wording to get him to believe her, but he did eventually in the end, and even offered a session with his dad to help. The implication of it was a bit too intimidating, so Enid politely declined for now, but the situation bolstered her confidence significantly.
The obvious trail to follow next was the queen siren herself.
Bianca was a strange anomaly to Enid. They’d never had a motive to directly interact if not for school-related reasons, and yet this larger-than-life figure at Nevermore now seemed inexplicably connected to her due to their mutual association with one Wednesday Addams. The two had even begun to hang out once the semester started, for reasons unknown to Enid. Contrary to Wednesday’s judgment of character, Bianca, surprisingly, believed Enid right from the get-go. She claimed that anyone that close to Wednesday was bound to get in some kind of unbelievable occurrence at some point. Enid didn’t know what that said about Bianca or her angle, but having an influential siren so readily on her side couldn’t have been a bad thing. And a helpful one too. Bianca asked the smart questions Enid was too distracted to ponder. Like, what was she doing the days before the loops, and if she had any magical items hidden in her room for any reason. The questions went unanswered as Enid had no way of confirming any of them, so she left the loop satisfied and happy to know she had a quick ally if needed.
Invigorated by her interaction with Bianca, it was only right to approach the people she had actual genial connections with. Which was, unfortunately, another short list.
Yoko being at the top of it.
Her vampiric friend believed her quickly. Maybe too quickly if Enid ever stopped to think about it, but she should have expected no less. Vampires were basically hardwired to adapt to strange situations based on their long lifetimes of witnessing more life than anyone should. Ever helpful, Yoko claimed she’d heard of this kind of thing before, which elated Enid just as quickly as it brought her down. What started as a promising lead ended up being an embellished story made up by one of Yoko’s distant cousins. And with another failed venture toward greater understanding, Enid did allow herself a well-deserved cathartic breakdown on her friend’s shoulder after that reveal. So, in that regard, the loop wasn’t a total loss but she did take that hiccup as a clear sign.
A sign that led to Eugene.
Looking back, Eugene probably should have been the first person she went to. There was no hesitation with him. Enid could barely get the words out before the other boy was completely on board with whatever was needed. His enthusiasm, honestly, would have made the beginning loops a lot less scary and stressful if she had him in her corner from the get-go. But, on par with everyone else, Eugene couldn’t do much to help her. Though his enthusiasm and zeal were unmatched, if not a little forceful. Enid made a mental note to herself to really thank him and make a concentrated effort to befriend him more if she ever got out of this time loop predicament.
Though Eugene’s enthusiasm couldn't hold off the sad truth that even the brightest students at Nevermore had any clue what was going on with her, or got her closer to breaking the looped Friday.
Enid needed something of an emotional reset before approaching the last people at the end of her very short list…
Her brothers ended up being the perfect reset.
They didn’t help, mainly because Enid didn’t tell them anything, but there was something vaguely comforting about being in their presence even through this bizarre situation. A normal person would say it was because they were family, but Enid knew it was because they didn’t care either way. Their behavior, while obnoxious, was supremely comforting. As much as she didn’t relate to them for the majority of her life, they were still family. They had a bond, especially as werewolves, that nobody outside their pack would ever truly understand. So it wasn’t that much of a surprise to Enid when they invited her out to lunch with little to no thought put into it. Sure, lunch might have devolved into a mini food fight, but the comfort they exuded was more valuable than any little progress made toward escaping the loops.
But only slightly...
This whole situation was still a major problem and needed to be solved...which easily led her to Thing.
Thing, as sweet as he was, didn’t take much convincing on her issue, but in what seemed like a repeating problem, couldn’t offer much help aside from aiding in doing some research. The research ended up at a dead end as, sadly, Enid had no idea what to look for or where to even start. She spent two loops brainstorming with Thing, though it did nothing but make abundantly clear what had to happen next. Because that seemed to be the theme....everyone was eager in their own way to help her, but no one was built to solve a complex mystery with the dedication it deserved and required.
No one except the one person Enid was hesitant to approach through all this, no matter how many loops had already passed.
Hesitant because while she had an idea of how school at Nevermore was going to progress, the insertion of Wednesday Addams into her life changed just about every trajectory she’d set for herself.
Hesitant because Enid finally got the cute boy she’d been crushing on throughout the school year, but he wasn’t the one occupying the majority of her thoughts after they all split once the semester ended.
Hesitant because Enid was nothing if not open to personal growth and learning new things about herself—things that were fine and great and beautiful on average but felt strange and warped when she’d only just come to terms with the development and was immediately forced to repeat the same fifteen hours for an undetermined amount of time.
Hesitant because how could a beautiful personal discovery matter when the single person who surrounded it was forever stagnant in their own growth by uncontrollable means?
The entire world was at a standstill, and Enid’s newfound attraction was left floundering in perpetual purgatory.
Here’s what Enid definitively knew about her roommate:
- Wednesday tolerated her presence more than she realized.
- Wednesday was a curious girl
(Enid may have let ego get in the way, thinking that her curiosity also extended to Enid herself. - Having Wednesday's attention was something to covet.
(Enid’s charm and likability alone was enough to warrant at least some attention from someone who claimed she wasn’t interested in congeniality.) Wednesday was really pretty but in a way that Enid seemed to notice all the time now.- Wednesday was her best friend
but in a way that Enid was disappointed to realize ended at that. - Wednesday was her really pretty best friend
but in a way that, despite being darkness incarnate, the other girl lit a spark in Enid’s heart that burned brighter than the ebony black of night that suffused her side of the room at all times. - Enid Sinclair maybe
definitelyhad a crush on Wednesday Addams. - Wednesday—
Enid pushed her notebook off her desk with a loud groan. Pen, paper, and other miscellaneous items loudly clattered to the ground in the deafening silence of her dorm room. Head in hand and drained of all mental fortitude, she bit her lip until the iron taste of blood spilled across her lips. She soothed it over with her tongue until the stinging faded, but the desired effect had already taken hold. That roiling, powerful spirit of the wolf inside her rumbled at the heightened bout of pain. It wasn’t enough to warrant a wolf out, but Enid’s stress levels were not helpful to the cause.
She was angry…and that anger focused her mind in a way that helped her realize she’d wasted two weeks in this endless cycle. Yet she was no closer to regulating her own emotional state despite the infinite amount of time at her fingertips. It was that anger that made her realize she was truly stuck. And at the end of her rope, there was nothing else to really do except proverbially free-fall and finally seek out Wednesday...but the thought of being around her crush seemed more daunting a task than spending another Friday floundering in ambiguity.
The time on her watch ticked by slowly.
The blinking clock face; a constant reminder of her own temporal woes.
She could give it a couple more loops…