❝You hear the door slam
And realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you'll ever see the sun❞

- THRILLER. michael jackson.

WEDNESDAY ADDAMS SKIPPED DOWN THE STREET ON A CHILLY FALL MORNING. She was in a very chipper mood since it was Halloween, meaning only twelve hours until she got to dress up for her favorite holiday of the year. Everyone in Salem loved Halloween, but the Addams family was known for being extremely over the top for the day, for obvious reasons.

"Hey, Wendy," called a voice as she approached a huge house. Her best friend, Allison Watts, stepped outside and closed the door behind her. She chuckled slightly when she saw the witch hat on her friend's head.

The brunette girl smiled, revealing the plastic vampire teeth that she had in her mouth. She removed them quickly so that she could talk without sounding like Sid the Sloth. "God, your house is nice."

"You say that every day," Allison responded with an eyeroll.

Wendy gestured to the beautiful mansion in front of them and wondered how her friend could not agree with her. It was so gorgeous. She would kill to be that rich. "Well, it's the truth."

"Have you decided what you're going to be this Halloween?" the Watts girl questioned as they began their trek to school. The entire town was decorated for Halloween, and it was making Wendy very very happy.

"Of course," she answered. Her costume was lying on her bed as they spoke. She had gotten it a while ago, and she was very excited to wear it that night. A grin was permanently stuck on her face because of how happy she was. "You know I've had my costume picked out for months."

The blonde girl smiled and shook her head, acting playfully frustrated because of how curious she was. Every year, her best friend made a huge unveiling of her Halloween costume. "And yet, you still won't tell me what it is. I guess I'll have to wait to see it tonight at the party."

"Ugh, do we really have to stay at your parents' lame party?" Wendy groaned. Allison's parents always threw a very underwhelming party where everyone dressed as people from the 1700s or something. Of course, the Addams children never followed the theme and showed up in whatever costumes they wanted.

Speaking of the Addams children, of course Allison had to bring up her best friend's brother, who was willing to do anything for the Watts girl. "Freddy's excited about it, right?"

"Yeah, but that's just because he gets to see you," the brunette answered with a roll of her eyes. She had gotten sick of her brother flirting with her best friend the minute it started, which was when they were all five. "He's so in love, dude. It's gross."

The two girls giggled before walking into the school. The entire day, Wendy was itching to get out. She usually liked school enough to get by, but she could not wait until it was time to dress up. During the last period, Wendy's leg was bouncing so aggressively that it shook her desk. They were listening to the story of the Sanderson sisters, which was a tale that was told every year in Salem on Halloween.

Their teacher grinned as she finished the story. "Poor Thackery Binx. Neither his father, his mother, nor anyone else...ever knew what became of him...those 3OO years ago. And so the Sanderson Sisters were hanged by the Salem town folk. Now, there are those who say that on Halloween night, a black cat still guards the old Sanderson house, warning off any who might make the witches...come back to life!"

"Gimme a break," someone scoffed, and everyone in the room turned toward the new kid. None of them had heard him speak until that moment, and his first words were against the story that the rest of them held sacred. Wendy rolled her eyes. Of course the California kid didn't believe in Halloween.

"Aha. We seem to have a skeptic in our midst," the woman in the front of the class mused as she stepped toward him. "Mr. Dennison, would you care to share your California, laid-back, tie-dyed point of view?"

He sighed, and Wendy prepared herself for his stupid, uncultured reasoning, wondering how many times he was going to say 'dude' in one sentence. "Okay. Granted that, uh, you guys here in Salem are all into these, uh, black cats and witches and stuff. Fine. But everyone here knows that Halloween was invented by the candy companies. It's a conspiracy."

"It just so happens that Halloween is based on the ancient feast called All Hallows Eve," Allison spoke up, and Wendy grinned, knowing that this kid was about to get humbled real quick. "It's the one night of the year where the spirits of the dead can return to Earth."

"Well said, Allison," the teacher complimented.

Wendy grinned, and she had never been more proud of her best friend. As much as she loved to be the one to talk about Halloween, she needed someone who was equally or at least half as excited and knowledgeable as she was. "That's my girl."

"Well, in case Jimi Hendrix shows up tonight..." Max started, and he stood up and walked over to her. Wendy was a little scared about what he was going to do. He held out a piece of paper toward her. "...here's my number." The entire class oohed as he smirked and walked back to his seat just as the bell rang. Wendy audibly gasp\ed because there was no way that idiot had the audacity to flirt with her best friend after hating on Halloween.

The two girls were on their walk home, giggling from excitement about Halloween, when a bike pulled up next to. Wendy groaned internally when she saw the Max kid — he wrote his name above his number on the paper he gave Allison — and he climbed off the vehicle before smiling at the blonde girl while completely ignoring her friend. "Hi. Look, um, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you in class."

"You didn't," the Watts girl answered with a shrug.

He offered a hand out to her, pleased that she did not despise him already. Wendy examined him and his tie-dye shirt while he did all of that, wondering if that was a thing in California. "My name is Max Dennison."

"Yeah, I know. You just moved here, huh?" Allison asked him since the girl had walked by the new house every morning since they were in sixth grade. It had been unoccupied for forever until just recently when they noticed a moving van in front of it.

The boy nodded, smug that she had noticed something about him without him having to tell her. Wendy wondered if the weirdo was going to follow them all the way home. He seemed cute enough, but the whole hating Halloween thing really threw her off. "Yeah, last week."

"Must be a big change for you," the blonde girl commented since chilly Massachusetts was a lot different than laid-back, hot Los Angeles.

He chuckled slightly as he glanced around at the decorated town square. There probably wasn't even a town square in LA since it was less of a town and more of a huge city. "Yeah, that's for sure."

"You don't like it here?" she asked, and Wendy was wondering if she should go ahead and leave the two alone. Why was Allison carrying a conversation with this guy? This was their annual Halloween walk home, and he was intruding on it.

"Oh, the leaves are great, but I don't know," he responded, and Wendy was about to kick his ass. Not only was he intruding on their walk, but he was also ruining it by trashing Halloween. "Just all this Halloween stuff."

Wendy scoffed, "All your face stuff is ruining all my Halloween stuff."

"Ignore her. She's a Halloween enthusiast," Allison informed him after shooting her best friend a look. Wendy backed down a bit, but she was still glaring at the boy. "You don't believe in it?"

"What, do you mean, like, the Sanderson Sisters? No way," he laughed out, and the Watts girl grabbed Wendy's arm to keep her from lunging at the boy. The brunette had to take a deep breath and remember that it was not his fault that he grew up in California and did not appreciate the spirit of Halloween.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion because this was so very weird to teenagers that grew up in Salem. Halloween was a sacred day that everyone loved. It was almost taboo to speak badly about it. "Not even on Halloween?"

"Especially not on Halloween," he replied with a shake of his head.

Allison just smirked and handed him back the piece of paper that he had handed her in class. It was folded now, so he could not see what it was. "Trick or treat."

"He likes you," the Addams girl sang as the two girls walked away from the grinning boy. It wasn't anything new, really, because almost the whole town was in love with Allison Watts.

The blonde girl smiled and rolled her eyes. "Shut up."

"Okay, I'm gonna go walk around the graveyard to get in the mood," Wendy told her friend once they arrived at Allison's house. It was her Halloween tradition. It was kind of weird, but people had done weirder things at her age.

Allison chuckled at her best friend's antics. She admired how passionate the girl was about the holiday. Her house was the most decorated in the entire town. Her family loved everything and anything spooky. It was almost like they were the actual Addams family. "You, my friend, are so very creepy."

"What can I say?" she shrugged as she walked away from her best friend's house backward. "I love Halloween."

Wendy was loving her walk in the graveyard, and she had practically memorized the headstones by that point. She scanned their names as she passed, and she could not wait for that night.

She paused for a second when she heard yelling, and she groaned, wondering who the hell had the audacity to ruin her wonderful walk in the graveyard. She turned a corner and ducked behind a gravestone when she saw the new kid standing with Jay and Ernie, the biggest bullies in town. She scoffed, thinking that they were friends until she noticed that they had the boy's shoes in their hands. He was trying to get them back, but after a while, he gave up and just rode off on his bike with no shoes.

She chuckled a little bit, knowing that he got his karma for trashing Halloween. She stepped out from behind the stone and walked over to the two guys laughing, deciding that she hated them more than Max.

"Hey, boys."