Author's note: Wednesday and wavier inspired me to finally start writing again.

Title is from the German band Krypteria who sings mainly in English with a bit of latin.

Chapter 1

Wednesday's break had been disappointingly uneventful, so she actually looked forward towards her second year at Nevermore. Not that she would ever admit that.

She had already unpacked and endured Enid's enthusiastical greeting. Not wanting to wait until her roommate was done with decorating her half of the room she went to the school mensa for dinner early, hoping to escape the run of students who were surely eager to reunite with their friends and share stories of their holidays, probably in an annoyingly noisy way.

When Wednesday got to the mensa it was indeed relatively empty. There were mostly younger kids, but she spotted some of the nightshades at a nearby table. Xavier was sitting between Bianca and Yoko, eating his lunch listlessly. Wednesday considered taking a seat at an empty table, but decided against it. Xavier and Bianca had fought against Crackstone with her, so maybe she could be a little less antisocial than usual towards them.

She said down and gave her three classmates a nod, deciding against a verbal greeting. She didn't need a sociability overkill.

„Addams, "Xavier greeted her. „How was your break? And how is your shoulder?"

„Boring and fine. "

Wednesday noticed that at close range Xavier didn't look that good. He had dark circles under his eyes and seemed to have lost a bit of weight.

„And your's? Break, not shoulder."

Great, now she was engaging in small talk. How mundane. But she didn't want to address her observations of Xavier's changed looks directly, least of all while Bianca was listening and she didn't know what else to say. Socializing was arduous. No wonder there were so few people who wrote really outstanding novels when thinking about what to say or not to say claimed so much of the intellectual capability that was pretty limited in most people anyway.

Xavier smiled at her probably unnecessarily clarification, considering that she had no reason to assume there was anything wrong with Xavier's shoulder. But her question had been ambiguously phrased, so her clarification was valid and no reason for amusement.

„The same. Boring, not fine, " he clarified, mocking Wednesday much to her annoyance. „I spend most of the time painting and binge watching Netflix."

That led the conversation to a discussion between Xavier, Yoko and Bianca about their currently favourite Netflix shows and movies, allowing Wednesday to zone out until her phone beeped with a new message.

Welcome back

A new message from her stalker.

„So you are using your phone after all," Xavier observed, not sounding pleased.

She hadn't written him during the break. Wednesday had considered it, but simply hadn't known what to write, which was really unnerving for a writer like her. But people usually didn't seem to write eloquent things on these damned phones. The only thing worth mentioning that happed during her break were the messages from her stalker and she didn't want to share that. This was her riddle to solve. And she'd refused to write cliché things like „how are you?" or „having a good break?". So she didn't write at all.

„Who are you writing to?" Xavier asked.

„I didn't write. I read."

„Oh, she's avoiding the question," Bianca said. „That means it's a guy."

Wednesday had no idea if her stalker was male or female, but she couldn't say that without causing further questions.

„I didn't avoid the question, I just answered it," Wednesday stated.

„OMG!" Enid, who was approaching their table, screamed. „You have a phone! Why didn't you tell me? Why do I not have your number?! Are you on Facebook? Snapchat? Instagram? Tumblr? We have to go shopping for a stylish case!"

Wednesday sighed. „I only got the phone right before leaving for the break and I didn't have your number, so I couldn't text you. And no, I'm not on any of those obscure… things."

„But you did give your number to someone," Yoko stated.

„Really? Who?" Enid asked.

„No one," Wednesday answered.

Yoko and Bianca shared a look.

„Definitely a guy," Bianca said and Yoko nodded.

Xavier's face changed to an expression looking like pain and he sucked in a breath.

„I have to go. Haven't arranged my painting supplies yet."

Xavier avoided Wednesday during the next days and she didn't see him close-by until their shared biological science class on Tuesday. He looked worth than he had on Sunday, pale and with even darker circles under his eyes. When he sat next to her and bend down to place his bag on the floor he hissed in pain.

„What's wrong? Have you been attacked by a monster you painted again?"

„No monsters, no visions, no attacks. I'm fine."

„You're lying," Wednesday stated the obvious, but was soon shushed by their new teacher.

After class, Xavier was so fast to leave that Wednesday didn't have time to continue her interrogation. But he wouldn't get away so easily. Wednesday wasn't one to let go of a riddle. That was the reason she decided to corner him when she got the chance and get out of him what's going on. She surely wasn't worried.