Wednesday Addams's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The candle died at the mouth of the passage. Wind from the tunnel snuffed it in one breath. Wednesday stood in full dark, two days from her ball, with a secret she could not reach. She needed light that the cavern could not kill. A single flame would not do. She needed something the dark could not blow out. She climbed back up to the great hall and searched the storerooms. Her party supplies filled three crates. She dug past cobwebbed banners and jars of spiders. Then her hands found it: a long arch of iron and wood, coiled with wires and glowing bulbs. Carved pumpkins ran along its top, each one hollowed for a lamp. She had ordered it as a grand entrance for guests. It was meant to span a doorway and welcome the dead. But it carried its own light. Dozens of small lamps, each sealed in glass. Wind could not reach them. Wednesday hauled the heavy arch down the stairs one piece at a time. Her arms shook. She set it upright in the cavern and threw the switch. The lamps woke. Orange light poured from the pumpkins and spread across the stone. The whole cavern glowed. Shadows fled to the corners. She dragged the glowing arch step by step toward the passage, and the dark gave ground before it. At the tunnel mouth, the lamps held. The wind pushed, but the glass kept every flame. Wednesday walked under the arch and into the passage. The light moved with her. Wet walls shone. Her boots splashed in a thin stream she had not heard before. The passage dropped. It turned. It opened. She stopped at the edge of a second cavern, far below the first. Her glowing arch lit the near wall and failed at the rest. In the middle stood dark water, a flat black lake with no far shore she could see. Something broke the surface and sank again without a sound. Ripples spread toward her boots. She raised the arch higher. The light caught stone steps leading down to the water, worn smooth by long use. Someone had come here. Often. A long time ago. Wednesday studied the lake and understood her problem had grown. She had wanted a passage. She had found a flooded hall beneath her flooded hall, with a thing living in it. Her ball was tomorrow night. She could not fill the cavern above while something swam below, close enough to climb the steps. She backed out of the passage with her light. She had beaten the dark. Now she had to learn what shared the water, and whether it could be kept from her guests.