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Standing in the crypt brings back so many memories for the Raven. So many years have passed since that fateful night in these stone walls. So many changes have occurred during the passage of time, yet this crypt remains the same. Where once stood a girl, now stands a woman with a lifetime of experiences and still much to come.
Wednesday looks around this place that holds so much history, to both Jericho and herself. She can not escape her thoughts turning to what that history represents.
The crypt of Joseph Crackstone, built on the land stolen from Outcasts. The final resting place of Jericho’s founder and a genocidal bigot towards Outcasts. Finally brought down by Goody Adams. Goody who later created the Nightshades to protect Outcasts against those like Crackstone.
The ancestor of the Gates, the ones who would later hold true to the beliefs of that man. Decreeing that Nevermore was built on their land from the time of its construction. The Gates family continued to spread hatred throughout Jericho, perpetuating the cycle of hatred and fear between the Normies and the Outcasts. That very same cycle that caused her dear late mother-in-law to hide her Outcast status all together after she married her sheriff.
All the Gates’ actions and beliefs that lead to their own downfall. Starting with a father ordering his son to poison Nevermore students during a school dance that only led to the son's demise. Which caused the Gates mother to take her own life, whether she knew how her husband's actions caused her child’s death will never be known. The father turned to the bottle to ease his guilt of his involvement, leading him to an early grave himself. Orphaning the daughter, leaving her all alone in the world, allowing her grief and anger to fill her, twisting her, and lead her down a path to try and bring Crackstone back to life, all her actions got her though, was a boot to the head, and death by thousands of bee stings.
But more so, this building, this landmark, this monument, has so much meaning and history to her. So many moments tied to her and her husband and their very relationship.
Her mind goes back to that first Poe Cup, when she first saw Goody Zeline Addams in that vision, being told she was the key. Wednesday remembers how confused that had made her at the time. Now, she can’t help but feel like it pointed her into a new direction, a direction that started her on the path that led her to the life she now lives.
She remembers her failed surprise party that Enid threw in this crypt. The others coming out of the coffins and enclaves when she entered, she can still hear all of their voices singing to her, being happy for her, celebrating her birth. The cake that she never touched, but was designed by Xavier and Enid, and lovingly crafted by Tyler. Wednesday never wanted a party, she had made that very clear to Enid, but her voice had gone unlistened to. The Raven still recalls her frustrations at her roommate, her best friend, at throwing that ridiculous party when all Wednesday wanted to do was figure out what was happening. Not to mention Wednesday’s annoyance when she learned that Tyler had made the cake, but wasn’t given an invitation, Enid used him for his talents, but didn’t allow him to attend the event. The party would have been much more pleasant if he had, and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the ground when she had her next encounter with Zeline. He has always managed to catch her when she needs him.
Tyler once told her of the experience of creating the cake with Xavier. Xavier went through various designs until they found one that Tyler felt confident enough to do and complete in a day. One of the few times the two have ever been able to be in a room and work together, all to create a birthday cake for the object of their affections.
Only a few days later, Tyler had turned this venue into the perfect date for the two. Giving her a single black dahlia, a flower that she now grows in their garden and a flower that she made sure to include exactly one of in her wedding bouquet surrounded by black and blood red roses. The fairy lights that proved the perfect lighting for his plan. Lights that hang still in their youngest daughter's room to allow her to feel safe from potential monsters lurking in the dark. The picnic blanket on the floor, covered with snacks and beverages. He even purchased black-and-white popcorn buckets as he knew her preferred color palette. And that horrific movie he chose to show her? So much pink, so…different to what others would consider horror movies. Others would have chosen to play a moving picture involving serial killers, or murders, or other such “horror elements,” but not her now husband, no, he decided to show her a “chick flick” and call it a horror movie, even so early on in their courtship, he already knew the Raven so well.
Tyler, years later, told Wednesday how he had been planning this date for days prior, it was just poor timing that the night of the date was the night after she took Faulkner’s diary. The date had never meant to be a distraction, it was meant to be simply an innocent first date.
And it was. Her beloved Tyler had set up the perfect date for the both of them, the hopeless romantic that he was and still is, he still always finds ways to surprise her, his cunning and skill behind those events still holds her respect. That night was perfect, until the sheriff Tyler calls a father and she now calls her father-in-law assaulted them with the light from his flashlight after bursting his way through the doors and interrupting what was supposed to be their first kiss. What would have happened had they kissed then? Would their history have changed? Would she have learned the truth sooner and been able to have saved him? She can never know, she understands that it is futile to question what could have been, but she is only a mortal, so she can not help but wonder.
The next time she was in this building was during the blood moon, the night that Laurel Gates brought back Crackstone from the dead. Using the young Addams as the key, the blood of the Raven from Zeline Addams’s bloodline. So much happened that night. Wednesday can still feel the cuffs of the chains holding her to the ceiling, she can still recall Tyler’s face as he looked at her, Hyde having been the one holding the reins at the time, being forced to follow every word that woman told him, being made to perform actions that he otherwise wouldn’t have even dreamed of doing. Yet he still found ways to work around them. Wednesday recalls how Gates ordered Tyler to wait outside, but when he left, he made sure to brush across her, making Gates think he was pushing Wednesday out of his way, but Wednesday knows the truth of that action, for her husband told her that he just wanted to touch her and that was the only way he could.
Wednesday remembers Gates explaining her “tragic” past, explaining all that led to that moment, how Laurel figured that she needed to turn toward magical means to achieve her goal. How she figured she needed to resurrect Crackstone to kill all Outcasts, while writing off her turning toward the very things her family despised as “for the greater good.” Wednesday always thought it was so odd, Laurel wanted to bring back a man long since dead to wreak havoc, instead of doing it herself. Perhaps Laurel just wanted a family again, perhaps she wanted her childhood hero to assure her she was safe and in the right that she would go to any length to get that comfort. Wednesday will never know Gates’ reasoning for she has long since paid the price for her choices.
Wednesday remembers feeling so helpless, something she had never felt since Nero’s death, as she saw Crackstone rise from the Afterlife. She remembers the feeling of the blade, first to gather her blood to allow the Normie, if Crackstone could even still be classified as such, to rise, and later, Wednesday can still recall the blade stabbing through her, with the full intention of allowing her life to end in this building. She can still see her dried blood in the place where her life was supposed to end.
She recalls Zeline’s final appearance to her, giving up the spirit’s ability to be summoned or seen in visions as a guide to allow the dying Addams life once again to end Crackstone’s reign of destruction before it could truly begin. So instead of her last moments being in this crypt, it was as if Wednesday had been reborn.
Wednesday recounts the importance of this building beyond that year. The importance it later held to herself and Tyler. How this building began to play a significant role in their relationship, the only other location coming close being the Weathervane. As the woman clad in black continues to wander around the building, skimming the tips of her fingers on the walls, the engravings, the tombs, and seeing the now lines left behind from the dust she gathered.
The amount of dates Tyler perfectly set up over their time at Nevermore, they always held study dates at the Weathervane, while here, they indulged in proper date nights. The wonderful nights spent just the two of them in this place of death, truly, one of the most perfect venues for romance. But Wednesday never bothered to keep count, she never felt the need to, every moment became precious. Even those horrific movies Tyler enjoyed showing her, especially those movies about the doll, so much pink. A shiver travels down Wednesday’s spine as she remembers those films in particular.
Wednesday herself used this landmark as the venue for romance to surprise Tyler on dates. The occasional candlelit dinner, just the two of them. Those nights when they just talked till dawn, breaking curfew, yet neither cared for even a second on that. Those nights were absolutely flawless. Those were the nights that perfectly taught Wednesday that they could have romance, while it took a different form from her parents. They didn’t need to constantly touch or give sickening terms of endearments for the other to show their care and affection. The comfort that brought the Raven is unspoken, yet so very real.
Their reconciliation even happened in these stone walls, away from others. They fought, said things that neither thought they would ever bring words to, and began to understand. Their healing started in the same place their pain took its climax. How absolutely poetic, how horrifically them.
But the memory that Wednesday treasures above all else that occurred here, must be when Tyler proposed to her. On their final night at Nevermore, Tyler slid a letter through her door to meet him here, and when she arrived, he handed her yet another black dahlia and a blood red rose, and led her through the doors, to be greeted by a candlelit picnic and fairy lights along the walls. He sat her down and presented her with a feast of all her favorite foods and a dark chocolate and coffee cake all of which Tyler made just for that date. They talked and enjoyed one another's company, but instead of a new, terrifying movie, after the meal, Tyler got down on one knee, gave her a cavity inducingly sweet and romantic speech, at least by their standards, and ended it by presenting her with the same engagement ring his father gave to his mother with and the simple question of if Wednesday would become his bride, to which she said yes.
Certainly, this crypt holds such great history for Nevermore and Jericho, but it holds a special history to the Addams now, and as Wednesday looks around, she can not help but feel sentimental.
“What are you doing here?” Turning her head, she looks up at the stairs and sees her husband standing there with a curious expression on his face.
“Nothing really, just remembering our history.” Wednesday tells Tyler.
“Ah yes,” smiling, he starts walking down the stairs, “we do have quite a bit of history here, don’t we?”
“Yes, we certainly do.” He now stands behind her, placing his hand on her shoulder and giving a single kiss to the top of her head. They both stand there for a few moments, reminiscing together and enjoying each other's silent company.
They might have stood there all day, except they heard the sound of a young girl at the top of the stairs. “Mama, Papa, what are you doing?”
Looking up, they are greeted by the sight of their two eldest children, Francoise and Dorian Addams, their twins.
Dorian continues where his sister left off, “Orientation is about to start, shouldn’t we be heading to Nevermore’s quad?”
“We were just lost in our memories, and you’re right Dorian, we’ll be right up.” Tyler assures their offspring that all is alright.
“What were you remembering?” Francoise asks her parents.
Following her husband, Wednesday climbs the stairs once again, and stops at the doors to turn around and be fascinated that all those memories feel like they happened just yesterday, but here she stands, about to leave her two eldest children to start their first semester at Nevermore.
“Our history, my offspring.” Wednesday tells her children, allowing the heavy door to close behind her, and heading toward her future once more.