Luke, the morning after his big night with Wednesday, arrived in Shadyside in an ugly brown family car that Natasha had bought to move around as a family of three.
Shadyside is a town of 3,500 inhabitants, it was even less impressive than Jericho—and that was saying something, as Jericho was not exactly brimming with attractions.
The most remarkable thing about Jericho was Crackstone's genocide, though it had been covered up by the authorities, who profited from the pilgrim's image by portraying him as a saint. Not to mention the gothic Nevermore Academy hidden in the forest nearby.
As for Shadyside, Luke and Wednesday had done some prior research online before arriving. Wednesday had to admit that this method was much faster than heading to a local library to dig up the town's history. Luke had given her a cellphone, which she accepted, partly due to her new identity.
Here's what they discovered:
Before 1666, Shadyside and Sunnyvale were a single place known as Union, a settlement of colonists with many similarities to the pilgrims of Jericho, though with a smaller population.
Union thrived like Jericho, but over time, internal tensions began to arise among the settlers. They found no information online about the exact causes of the split.
However, the few records suggested it was due to a clash of interests between two factions within the community. These differences eventually led to the separation, dividing the inhabitants of Union into two distinct groups: Sunnyvale and Shadyside.
This division birthed a long-standing rivalry between the two towns.
"Why did we pick the poorer town to stay in?" Luke asked as he gazed out the car window at Shadyside's houses, many of which looked abandoned and neglected.
The scene was depressing, almost desolate. There was barely any activity in the streets; since they had arrived, they had only seen a couple of cars driving by and a few pedestrians walking, all with serious, indifferent, or seemingly sorrowful expressions.
"Because it's the more suspicious of the two towns... When the Kairia clan was after me, I didn't have much time to observe Shadyside, but a few minutes were enough to notice it seemed like a dead town: lifeless, gloomy, almost as if it were trapped in time," Natasha said as she turned the steering wheel to navigate a narrow street.
"The townsfolk don't seem very happy to have visitors," Wednesday added, fixing her gaze on a woman watching her from the porch of a nearby house, her brow furrowed and her expression filled with clear distrust.
If Wednesday had worn her usual cold, intimidating expression—those deep, dark eyes that could send chills down anyone's spine—the woman would have likely retreated into her house in fear.
But this time, Wednesday was using a false identity and sporting a different look. She had even decided to change her personality, at least a little.
She projected a much more ordinary image. Her face, though still striking, radiated a calm that exuded nothing but normalcy. She looked like a 16-year-old girl with a touch of elegance, but without the spark of psychopathy that usually made her so unsettling to everyone except her family and Luke.
"Exactly. That's something I also noticed," Natasha continued as she parked in front of a two-story house with a surprisingly well-maintained garden compared to the rest of the surroundings.
"This town isn't very welcoming. Unlike other places like Jericho, where people don't exactly love tourists but tolerate them because they bring in money, here, there seems to be an underlying hostility toward anyone who isn't a local. It's strange, and that's precisely why I chose this town over Sunnyvale," she added, turning off the car engine.
'At least the house doesn't look like a haunted mansion,' Luke thought as he took in the house where he'd be living from now on.
"Do you think this has something to do with my parents?" Luke asked.
His parents must have passed through Sunnyvale and Shadyside to hide evidence somewhere in or around the area. Maybe they had caused some of this—like the massacre Edgar triggered in his fight with Edward and his brother, killing thousands of normies in the crossfire. A town would be left devastated after something like that, and recovery would be slow.
"Maybe, though I don't think it's very likely. There are no official records of any major catastrophe or large-scale incident during the time your parents were here. They came here on the run, with just enough time to hide the evidence before continuing their escape," Natasha replied.
"And while I'm not ruling out the possibility that John, Sophie, and the Spellmans were involved in a fight that led to normie deaths in this town, I doubt they were the direct cause of the atmosphere we're seeing now," she added, and Luke nodded, agreeing with her logic. His parents hadn't had enough time to create this lingering sense of despair in the town.
"Maybe the town authorities covered something up," Wednesday suggested in her trademark tone of disdain, crossing her arms. "In fact, I'm 99% sure of it. The same thing happened in Jericho with Crackstone and his true nature: genocidal and xenophobic."
'Hey, get back into character, Jenna,' Luke thought as he noticed his girlfriend's expression slipping back into the usual one that scared most people.
"In Jericho, Crackstone is still revered despite all the crimes he committed. They've got a statue of him, a Pilgrim Day, and even a stupid theme park where they charge thirty bucks for entry. Normies have a peculiar way of 'forgetting' history when it suits them, especially when there's money involved," Wednesday added with a dry, almost bitter laugh.
"Yeah, that's very likely, though it doesn't explain why Shadyside is like this. From what I know, Sunnyvale is thriving. We need to see it for ourselves," Natasha said as she opened the car door and stepped out.
Luke, in his feminine form, got out and glanced toward the neighboring house. An elderly couple was seated on reclining chairs, staring at them with severe expressions.
'Let's see how they react…' Luke thought with amusement, pulling back his hood and taking off his sunglasses, revealing his face.
He smiled softly, offering a friendly expression, his melodious, gentle voice reaching the elderly couple's ears.
"Good morning, neighbors," he said in a voice so sweet it sounded like he was singing rather than speaking. If Wednesday was going to stay in character, he might as well do the same—like the time he role-played as a vigilante, though he quickly got bored of that.
The elderly couple froze for a moment, their eyes slowly widening in shock at the sight of such a beautiful girl. They had never seen a face that looked as though it belonged in a fairy tale.
The frowns that had dominated their features vanished completely. After a few seconds of silence, the couple hurriedly rose from their chairs, said nothing, and rushed into their house.
"Beauty wins again," Luke commented mockingly.
Wednesday and Natasha rolled their eyes as they started unloading their belongings. Even they, both stunning beauties, hadn't elicited such a reaction from the elderly couple.
Although Natasha was in her altered form as a gorgeous blonde woman to play Luke's mother, it was clear she couldn't appear unattractive if her "daughter" was this perfect.
They entered the house, each carrying their things.
"The bedrooms are upstairs. There are three, one for each of us," Natasha said, beginning to climb the stairs, with Wednesday and Luke following behind.
"We'll use one, won't we?" Luke asked with a playful smile, glancing at Wednesday. He'd always wanted to share a room with her, for various reasons. Cough.
When they'd stayed in the hotel, they'd shared a room, and it had been a very fun night…
"Yes," Wednesday replied instantly. She also wanted to share a room with Luke. They'd already worked things out after their first serious fight and were now getting along better than ever.
"Oh, what a lovely sisterly bond… Have fun sharing a room," Natasha said mockingly as she entered one of the rooms and closed the door before Luke could protest.
Wednesday, unaffected by Natasha's teasing, examined the two remaining rooms. She chose the slightly larger one with an en-suite bathroom.
The room, like the rest of the house, was already furnished. Natasha had managed to rent the house at a very low price, fully furnished.
"In two days, we start school… A week late. Who would've thought we'd end up back at a normie school," Luke remarked, pushing one twin bed next to the other to create the illusion of a double bed.
It was Friday, almost six in the evening, meaning they had the entire weekend to get through before school started on Monday. Fortunately, this normie school wasn't a boarding school like Nevermore.
"I'm used to dealing with normie teenagers," Wednesday said, having attended normie schools her whole life. She had only spent one year at Nevermore.
That year at Nevermore had been the best school year of her life for various reasons, the main one being meeting Luke, followed closely by all the life-or-death battles she got to experience thanks to him.
"We need to buy a double bed," Wednesday added, noting the separation between the two beds. No matter how close they were pushed together, it would be uncomfortable.
"I'll buy one today," Luke replied immediately.
The most important thing is a good night's sleep, right? They needed a proper bed to use and rest in optimal conditions.
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