۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗ 𓏲˖ 𑁍 ࣪ ִ ۫ ּ  ִ ۫   ˑ ֗
࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ✩◿𝓖𝓖◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER TEN—
the rest of forever

"This is the car that hit the mayor." Wednesday confirmed as she pulled the sheet off the car in the garage.

"Okay, this just took a dark turn!" Enid panicked. "We need to call Tyler's dad right freaking now."

"Why?" Wednesday looked back at her in disbelief. "So he can take me back to Nevermore and get me expelled? It's not gonna happen."

"What are we even looking for, Wednesday?" Blake followed her back into the house.

"Clues." she said back, the door creaking open.

"This is the night i'm gonna die." Tyler looked around in fear. "Shit, sorry, Blake."

"It's all good." she shook her head. "If you didn't say it, I would have."

The four crept down the hallway together as Wednesday stopped to stare up at a painting. "Here they are. The Gates Family. They scrub up well for psychopaths."

"Can't say the same for their home." Blake glanced around fearfully. "I know I always say i'd like the meet more ghost, but I'm a liar. I don't."

Wednesday walked the rest of the way and to the next door as the trio followed her, looking around at the trashed room. Blake paused as Tyler walked right through her on accident, cringing entirely. "Jesus."

"Sorry." Blake apologized. "Shock have warned you. It's very cold."

"Just a little." he pulled his jacket around him more and looked to Wednesday. "Seen enough?"

She reached up and pulled one of the books, revealing a secret room as the bookshelf pulled apart. Blake whimpered in fear as she hid behind Wednesday while Enid hid behind her. "Who doesn't have a spooky built-in altar in their family library?"

"Ours is in the living room." Wednesday said in return as Tyler frowned his eyebrows in shock. "More seating for year-long Dia de los Muertos."

She walked in as Enid and Blake shared a look. Blake looked at Tyler in fear. "Ladies first."

"No thank you." he shook his head.

"They're still warm." Wednesday felt the candles. "Tyler, you check the rest of the ground floor. Blake, as much as it'll ruin my birthday fun, go with him."

"Got it." she nodded, giving Enid a sad smile. "Good luck."

She just whimpered in return and followed Wednesday.

"What did you mean earlier?" Blake followed him back to the main area, Tyler looked back at her. "When you said I was lucky. What did you mean?"

"Oh." he looked around. "I lost my Mom almost a year ago."

"You did?" Blake paused as she frowned, hie eyes shifted back to her with a nod. "I'm sorry, I couldn't imagine."

"I didn't mean you were lucky, it came out wrong. I just mean that the people that love you are lucky, it's like you still get a chance. A bad one, but still better then most." he explained to her, fearing she'd taken it the wrong way.

"You don't have to explain yourself, I understand." Blake promised him as she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sorry about your Mom. I wish I knew why I came back the way I did, no other ghost did."

"Do you think it has to do with Nevermore?" he asked her, shining the lights around the place.

"That's the only explanation, really." she agreed, looking around to help Wednesday as much as she could. "I don't really know."

"Will you never get to cross over, then?" Tyler asked her, thinking hard about it.

"Sometimes I start to but I stop myself." Blake shook her head as she frowned. "I don't think I can do it."

"You don't?" he shined his light over at her. "Don't people say it's suppose to be some great thing?"

"I'm sure it is, but I don't know how it could be for me." Blake shook her head as she frowned slightly. "No one i've loved has died. I still have my parents, my friends."

Xavier.

"Nothings waiting for me on that side." Blake said back to him as Tyler nodded his head. "Do you think your Mom has people?"

"Yeah, I do." he nodded with a small smile. "Are you scared of it?"

"Terrified." Blake nodded her head. "I'm more scared of that then having to spend the rest of forever in Nevermore. I like to think i'll cross over when all my friends die, then I won't be so scared."

"I'm sorry this happened to you, Blake." Tyler exhaled as she nodded her head. "It's not fair. You deserve a second chance, if no one else gets one."

Blake gave him a sad smile. "I almost forgot you were an asshole for a second."

It made him laugh, nodding his head at her. "So, progress?"

Blake smiled one more time and looked back. "I'm gonna look in the room down the hallway, cover more ground so we can get out of here."

"Do you need a light?" he held up the flashlight.

"Sure, toss it." Blake confirmed as he did so, the flashlight flying right through her as his face fell. Blake laughed. "Got you."

Blake floated away toward the other rooms, her eyes looking around everything she could with the help of moonlight from the window. She hoped she could find something, passing a mirror as she stopped to look at herself. Blake frowned as she leaned in close, raising her hand and watching it pass right throigh the glass.

Tyler's scream echoed in the house.

"Tyler!" Blake yelled as she ran back, stopping as the Hyde blocked the living room and roared at her. Blake screamed loudly and ran back, straight through the wall as she kept running. She ran to the woods where she heard the furs howling.

"God, you left your friends!" Blake yelled at herself as she turned around and ran back toward the Gates mansion. "You stupid ghost."

"Blake!" Tyler called when she got close enough, stopping. "Blake!"

"Tyler?" she yelled, looking around. She could tell he was outside and in pain. "Where are you?"

"Near the door!" he winced, Blake ran around the rest of the way and found him with a deep scratch across his chest and leaning back against the mansion.

"Tyler." Blake dropped down next to him. "Let me see."

He moved his hand to reveal how bad the scratch was, Blake blinked in panic. "You're gonna need stitches. Really bad."

He groaned and leaned his head back. "It burns."

"Move your hand." she hurried to tell him as Tyler dropped his, Blake placed her hand on the marks as her hand passed through his chest a little. Tyler stared up at her as the pain started to fade. "From the cold, remember?"

He nodded his head. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." she used both hands to make it better. "It won't stop the bleeding through."

"Enid, hold this." Wednesday shoved her flashlight toward her as she kneeled. "Blake?"

"That thing is still insane!" Enid panicked.

"He's okay, but they're pretty deep." Blake told her, moving over but keeping her hands on the wound.

"Can you walk?" Wednesday looked at Tyler. Xavier came around the corner, Blake gaped just as Wednesday had. "Where'd you come from?"

"I was looking for Blake and Thing told me she was with you." Xavier pulled his scarf off and handed it to Tyler. "Take this. What happened to him?"

•

kylie speaks

i've seen a lot of people
hate on wednesday for
putting xavier in jail when
she thought he was the hyde
but how can y'all blame her?
i know he ended up being
innocent but so many clues
lead back to him, especially
when he popped up out of nowhere in this moment. if
i knew it wouldn't have been
so obviously id have believed it
too fr.