Chapter Text
The knock on the door was strong and sharp, and sheriff Galpin looked up from his morning coffee slowly, almost thinking the sound was a fiction of his imagination.
Another knock, more persistent this time, assured him he was still sane, and that he had no choice but to get up from his seat. When he swung the door open, he was almost disappointed in himself for not seeing this coming. The semester break was definitely shorter than he expected.
“I want to see him.” Wednesday Addams stated, all stubbornness and braids.
The sheriff sighed. He once thought of her as a threat - competition, even, or as a critic of his investigating methods (and definitely of his parenting skills). Now, he wasn’t so sure he still had any resilience left in him to defy her. “He’s in the garage.”
Wednesday nodded once and turned away, not before she heard him muttering in her direction, “You better hope he’s not having one of his bad days.”
Her step didn’t falter, but the gulp in her throat was far harder to control as she marched over to the garage door. When Wednesday arrived back at Nevermore Academy last night, she could no longer ignore the ping in the back of her mind, which seemed to grow stronger the closer she got to Jericho.
There were rumours floating around the school about what had happened to Tyler after that fateful night at Nevermore. One rumour said he was dead. Some said he was sent to a special prison for outcasts; a ridiculous thought, of course, because if there was one, Wednesday would have been admitted ages ago. The next best option for outcast minors was Nevermore, obviously, and somehow, Wednesday found it hard to imagine Tyler competing in the next Poe Cup.
She didn’t really have a plan when she came knocking on the Galpins’ door, but the sheriff’s simple answer was a cold comfort. Wednesday didn’t know whether it was curiosity, anger, or vengeance that drove her to seek Tyler. She just knew she had to see him. The tug in the back of her mind was utterly maddening.
Wednesday twisted the doorknob, only to discover that it wasn’t even locked. She walked in, expecting the same messy space she once used to patch Tyler up - that seemed like a lifetime ago right now - but her confusion evaporated when her eyes met the thick metal bars of the cage that filled the garage almost to its entirety. What made her eyes widen and her breath hitch wasn’t the cage; it was the golden haired boy inside, sheepish and shy as ever, that was waving at her while putting his book down. That tingle in the corner of her head was turning into a full on blaring siren.
“Hey, Wednesday. I thought I heard you coming.”
There wasn’t a lot of space left on the garage floor that wasn’t taken by the cage, but Wednesday managed to sit in that space. Tyler sat across from her inside the cage, only a few metres away but his eyes were so full of longing that she felt like they were galaxies apart.
“I trust this is not one of your bad days, then,” she finally managed to say, recalling his father’s earlier remark.
“No, it isn’t.” Tyler’s eyes wandered all over her, almost drinking in her sight. It made Wednesday uncomfortable. As if there was something he was going to see that she should be ashamed about.
She hardened her heart, avoiding the discomfort. She was going to get her answers and leave; there was no point in drifting away with unnecessary emotions. “The bad days. That’s when you turn into the hyde, correct?”
Tyler motioned to the bars to his right, his gaze not leaving her while she noticed some of them were crooked. As if something was trying to break out. “I wouldn’t say that ‘turning’ is the right word. But, yes.”
Wednesday’s deadpan stare was back to him, with his little smile and the dimple that chased it, his curls falling low on his brows - he was definitely overdue for a haircut, but other than that he seemed healthy, happy , even. Anger flooded her after this observation. She wasn’t there to make him happy. He didn’t deserve it.
“Your dad should really be getting the father of the year award. Locking your son up in a cage? That must be a new personal record.”
Tyler looked hurt for a moment. “He had a tough few weeks.” he shrugged it off, which only angered her more. “I can’t blame him, really. Considering the way he’s been handling it, it could’ve been a lot worse.”
Tyler was right. His father was only a shadow of the man he was before, and it’s not like he had been so lively up until then. Him being right, of course, was only adding more fuel to her rage. She glared at him for a long moment, trying to think of a question, or at least a searing insult.
“You can ask me, you know.” Tyler stated eventually.
“Ask you what?”
“Anything,” such a simple word, spoken with such compuser, and yet Wednesday could hear the underlying tremble in it. “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
Wednesday huffed. “How do you know? Maybe I just missed the Hyde.”
As the words left her lips, she could almost sense the shift in the room. Tyler’s shoulders tensed, his knuckles whitened, and she could swear his hazel eyes flashed red.
“You better not say things like that,” Tyler said through clenched teeth.
“Why not?”
“Because he can hear you.”
Wednesday’s eyes widened in surprise before she could control them. Regaining her blunt facade, she said, “Why isn’t he… out?”
“Because I won’t let him,” Tyler said, chest heaving, “I manage to keep him down, most of the time. Now please, Wednesday,” the desperate way he said her name made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand, “ask me something, anything. Talking helps… to keep him from taking over.”
Wednesday just stared at him, realising she’s bearing witness to an invisible battle as his nostrils flared and his fists tightened, and his eyes continuously shifted between hazel and red. She considered mocking him just a little more, curious about the result, but the space she was sitting in was small, and the Hyde’s arm could easily tear her apart from his - from Tyler’s place in the cage. So instead, she asked the first thing that came to mind.
“How much of it was true?”
The red flashes subdued as guilt filled Tyler’s face. She cursed herself immediately. What a fool , she thought, you could bring up murder, mutilation, chains and torture, and yet you chose to blame him for being a bad boyfriend. Enid was really starting to rub off on her.
“Most of it was,” Tyler said quietly, his eyes lowered, his fingers fidgeting in his lap. “I really did like you. Taking you out on a date, kissing you… there was nothing malicious behind those things.”
Wednesday crossed her arms. “Am I supposed to believe that? Thornhill could’ve put you up to these things.”
“But she didn’t,” he whispered back, “I didn’t even know about your role in her plan, at least not until the very end.”
“So you just hid your true nature as a giant, murderous monster out of your own selfishness.”
Tyler looked broken, haunted, and Wednesday saw his father in him for a terrifying split second. “I knew it would hurt you. The lies, the hiding. Hurting your friends.” He blinked rapidly, but a single tear gave him away. “And it was. Selfish, I mean. But I had to have you.” He suddenly looked up to her, and his eyes were all hazel, but more deranged and desperate than she’d ever seen them. “I was being tortured, abused, controlled. The Hyde liked it, doing all those things, but afterwards I’d wake up and - “ Tyler inhaled sharply to stop himself from talking. “Yes, I was selfish. But you were the only thing that was keeping me together. So I couldn’t give up on you.”
Wednesday studied him carefully. The way he spoke made her understand the words he was saying weren’t excuses. He was taking full accountability for lying to her, manipulating her, and using her for his own personal benefit. He felt bad about it, no doubt; but not so much that he was willing to tell her the truth that would push her away. He was, utterly and truly, selfish.
Wednesday was thoroughly impressed.
“We’re more alike than I thought.” was all she said out loud. Tyler’s eyes widened before he let a little smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “That still doesn’t answer my question, though. What about the police station? Crackstone’s crypt?”
“It was the Hyde talking. Sometimes, especially with you…” Tyler trailed off for a moment. “He can come out for a few moments, and take over. I don’t even have to transform.”
Wednesday raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, her expression clearly calling him out on his bullshit.
“I know that it sounds weird, but I swear to you... It was worse than waking up in the woods, because at least then I wouldn’t remember what happened. When he takes over like that…” a visible chill went down his spine, and Wednesday watched it, fascinated. Was it all an elaborate act? Or could he actually be telling the truth? “When he takes over, it’s like I’m locked up in my own head. I can see all of the things he does, hear the words he says, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“That sounds awfully comfortable.” she held her chin up defiantly. “How do I know it’s not him talking right now?”
“The eyes,” was the simple, low-voiced answer. “They start to flash in red.”
The girl studied him for a long, nerve-wracking moment, not blinking the entire time. “Show me.”
Red sparks flared across the hazel irises. “Wednesday, no. It’s dangerous. I haven’t completely mastered putting him back down - “
“Then I don’t think I can believe you.” She said, almost concluding their conversation, and got up to her feet.
“Wait,” he rose from the ground and walked alongside her, as far as the cage would let him. “Wait, Wednesday, please!”
She stopped with her back to him, waiting.
“I’ll do it.”
Wednesday let her lips curl into a vicious smile before turning to face him, her expression once again neutral.
“Just… Don’t believe anything he says, okay?” Tyler’s shaky voice echoed across the room, as he backed away from her, further into the cage. “And promise me you’ll stay right there.” to her wondering eyes, he answered, “He’ll try to get close to you,” right before his eyes went blank, and then fully red.