Chapter Text
"It has finally happened," Wednesday murmured as she stood in the infirmary of her family home, watching as the rain fell against the window pane.
Behind her, Cousin Itt babbled with a grave tone.
Wednesday bowed her head as she shut her eyes.
It had all started suddenly.
It was during her break from Nevermore. She was in the middle of fencing with her father when she felt cold and ghostly fingertips caress her heart. Wednesday remembered freezing in absolute terror at the feeling as she felt her beating heart pulsate against a cold palm before it was squeezed, causing her to cough up blood before she collapsed.
Thunder rumbled overhead as Cousin Itt continued to explain what Wednesday already knew. Grandmama had told her the legends of Oizys Addams, one the founders of their entire clan. He told her that Oizys and her husband lived happily until he was murdered.
With grief and love in her heart, she traveled to the underworld and faced the God of Death and offered her heart and soul to bring him back to life. It succeeded but her husband left her to be with another. Her soul was forfeit, and she would honor her deal, but her children would be alone in the world, so In her grief, she made a request.
"For the ones who share my blood, I beg of you to give them the ability to withstand the horrors that this world will throw at them and give them the ability to take care of themselves when I am gone."
Even now, as Cousin Itt babbled away, she felt goosebumps as she recalled the speech her Grandmama said Death had given her ancestor.
"You have given me your heart and soul once before to bring your beloved to life. Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain these gifts, something of equal value must be lost."
"If I am to give those who have your blood these gifts, then their hearts and souls are mine as well once destined death arrives for them. But I am not a cruel or merciless God that will bind those unaware of this agreement without a chance to fight against it. It is love that has caused your family and future generations this grief, and it will be love that will be their saving grace."
"The moment anyone that shares your blood becomes intoxicated by love's scent, they have one year to gain the affection of the one they love. If they succeed, their lives are their own, with their gifts intact. And when they pass, their souls will go wherever they are destined to go. But if they fail, then they will perish the following sunrise and their souls belong to me for eternity, forever alone in the cold dark where you will now go."
Oizys' wish gifted her children and their descendants with peak human strength, speed, durability, reflexes, mental processing, senses, healing rate, invulnerability to poisonous toxins, and slow aging.
She, and her family all across the world, were nigh-invincible, allowing them all to dance with destined death without a care in the world. But in turn, the moment they are stuck with Cupid's arrow, their heart becomes a ticking timebomb.
Many would think that one year was enough time, but for many of their clan, it wasn't because the moment the fuse was lit, the sickness would begin. It would be slow at first until it became maddening, often hindering the afflicted the chance to claim the heart of their beloved, and thus killing them one day later at sunrise.
How could she have been so stupid to allow herself to fall into such a predicament? How could she allow the intoxicating eyes of the siren and the sunny smile of a werewolf to find their way through the maze that surrounded her heart?
"I am a fool," Wednesday whispered as she continued to stare at the storm outside. "I have one year or else my family will be lighting my funeral pyre…"
Just one year….