Wednesday Addams's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

Wednesday climbed back to the upper cavern with one problem gnawing at her. The dim bridge kept the creature calm, but it sat on the top step by the lake. The ballroom above it was still black. Guests arrived tomorrow night. They could not dance in the dark. And any bright lamp she carried down would wake the thing and flood the hall. She stood in the cold stone room and tested it. First she hung a cheerful strand of lights along the wall, each bulb a small grinning pumpkin. She plugged them in. A warm orange glow spread over the rock. It was pretty. It was also far too weak. The far corners stayed dark. Guests near the walls would see nothing. So she tried the opposite. She wheeled in a set of tall iron stands, each topped with a glowing pumpkin or ghost head. She switched them on. Light flooded the whole cavern at once. Every corner lit up. She could see the full floor, the arched ceiling, the mouth of the passage. Then she heard it. Water hissed below. A wave slapped stone in the lower cavern. The bright stands had thrown their glow straight down the passage toward the lake. The creature had seen it. Water climbed the steps. Wednesday ran to the passage and killed the stands. The cavern went black again. She waited, heart pounding, until the water settled and slid back down. The stands worked. But their light leaked. It fed the creature. She could not use them as they were. She looked at the passage mouth and understood. The problem was not the light. It was the direction. The stands poured their glow everywhere, including down the throat of the earth. If she could block that one path, the rest could blaze. She dragged the tall stands away from the passage and faced them at the walls. Then she hauled a heavy stone slab across the passage mouth, leaving only a thin gap for the dim bridge's glow. She switched the stands back on. Light filled the ballroom. The walls glowed. The floor shone, ready for dancers. She crept to the gap and peered down. The lower cavern stayed dim, lit only by the soft pumpkin bridge. The lake lay flat. The creature slept. She tested it for a full hour. The stands never leaked past the slab. The water never rose. She had it. A bright ballroom above, a sleeping monster below, one stone wall between them. Wednesday wiped her hands on her dress. The cavern was lit. Her ball could happen. But as she climbed the steps, she thought of the music, the band, the stamping feet. Light stayed behind the slab. Sound would not. Loud noise might reach the lake as easily as a lamp. She had solved the light. Tomorrow, she would have to solve the sound.