Wednesday blinked, curling her hand open and closed in surprise at suddenly being thrust back into their body.

  "What happened?"

  She tried to ask Friday, but there was nothing but silence. She could barely even feel her weight, tucked away so far in the "back". It wasn't like she'd never been alone before; sometimes one of them would sleep while the other was active. It also wasn't the first time Friday shoved her to the front after experiencing a misfortune. But this felt different.

  The light flickered back on, casting a dark silhouette on our new younger brother as his bloody hand slipped, and he dangled off the mp with just a few fingers. Walking forward calmly, I stepped on the pile of my twitching and ughing family members. and held my arms up just. The baby casually fell into my waiting arms, giggling hideously.

  There was a loud cpping from behind, and I turned to see mother, bloodied yet graceful as ever, giving a round of appuse. "Congratutions, Wednesday! It looks like the honor of teaching the child to use explosives falls to you."

  That sparked another bout of hysterical ughter from Fester, which I quickly put a stop to by stomping on his hand as I walked down. Noisy.

  I just wanted a shower. Being covered in blood was refreshing, but only if I was in the mood for it. Friday would rather get rained on, but that just felt cold to me.

  The extra dress turned out to actually be useful for once with this issue, but it was still sticking to my skin in many pces.

  The drive back home was much more chaotic than the drive out, as dad wanted mom to feel the pain of her raw wound jostling about for longer. Thing took the wheel when they started to make out, swerving as he tried to pass by as close to as many pedestrians as possible. It was fun, but somewhat annoying when I was trying to rebraid my hair and get it to stop tickling my face.

  Mom named our new younger brother Pugsley. He was an overly excitable little thing, needing to be locked in the reinforced trunk even when he fell asleep. Even now we could feel the occasional bumps when he kicked or rolled over. I wasn't particurly enthused with that energetic inclination, but his durability that Friday so wonderfully tested did seem promising for testing the torture devices in the py room. My sister hated using them on ourselves while she was awake, so it could be a unique opportunity.

  But it was hard to focus on anything else when I had an unanswered question right in front of me.

  Friday being the emotional one was nothing new, and she had countless moments of panic or anxiety in the past, but I hadn't seen her fail to calm herself down like this before. Even now, I could feel a strange tension in our muscles if I focused on it, so I didn't think she put herself to sleep.

  When we returned to our gloomy abode, I quickly walked up to our stalwart butler before he could leave and do butler things. “Lurch. You saw everything. What happened to my sister?”

  Looking down at me, he blinked and groaned, “Kruuhh”

  “I know she was overwhelmed. Was there anything different from usual?”

  Slowly, elegantly, he pced a hand on his chin. “…Grugh.”

  “Yes, she usually does need a rest after a bout of bad luck, but this is different. She’s not asleep, but I can’t talk to her.” I frowned. If Lurch, the most observant member of the family, didn’t know, then who could?

  “Raaghg, ung.” He pointed his long arms toward mom, who was being twirled around by dad up and down the stairs to the door.

  “Ah, you’re right. She has that ability. Thank you Lurch.”

  Wasting no time, I ran up and caught mom before she could be swept away to the bedroom by dad and asked straight to the point, "Mother. What happened to Friday?"

  She looked at me with a soft gaze. "Oh dear, did she faint again?"

  Dad knelt down and grabbed my left hand. "Oh, I'm so sorry Friday, I was so excited and focused on Tish that I didn't pay enough attention to notice the switch."

  I shook my head, "She's still awake, but I can't hear her. I don't know if she hears me either.”

  Mom's expression shifted to concern, and she pced her hand on my head, closing her eyes. "Let me see if I can find her."

  After a moment of silence, her head threw up, her eyes rolling back on themselves while dad hugged her waist for support. The world fell away, the two of us seemingly becoming the center of the universe as something between us clicked into pce.

  Then the moment was over, and she looked into my eyes, a hint of pride and concern warring with themselves in her gaze.

  "She's surrounded her mind with a protective circle! That's why you can't communicate."

  Dad looked at us with a gaze of pure adoration, waving his cigar with a dramatic florish "Like mother, like daughter," He sighed lovingly. "She may have her troubles, but it looks like she's inherited your monstrous talent!"

  "But why would she do that?" My brows furrowed, unsatisfied with one half of the mystery solved.

  Mom pulled me into a tight hug, and I pressed into it. "I didn't want to break her privacy, but I could feel a lot of anxiety leaking out from her little bubble. My best guess is that she's just overwhelmed and wants alone time, or, judging by the two way nature of the barrier, she wants to keep her feelings to herself until she gets together. Possibly both.”

  Dad kissed our head and worked his way at finishing my halfway done right braid.

  “It's a sign of talent that she pulled her off, but when she comes back I recommend you warn her against overusing it. She can stand to rely on us a bit more."

  I didn't need to look to know he had a complicated gaze. We'd all realized by now that Friday almost never took control when dad was around, and when she did it was only with the family all together. I tried forcing her once after she kept brushing it off, before realizing I couldn't bring her out no matter how hard I tried. By how confused she acted when I questioned her, it was likely subconscious.

  "Well, there's not much to do now..." She trailed off, before looking at me with a considering face. "But maybe you could try doing things that usually rexes Friday while I rest? It might help calm her down even if she isn't all there. I'll get grandmama to cook her favorites tonight."

  Things that Friday likes? Hm, yes, that could work. "Okay. Have fun." I walked away as dad swept her up in his arms.

  My first thought was to go to Grandmama, who had been furiously mixing potions for newborn health and childbirth recovery ever since the sudden announcement.

  "Weednesdayy! Congratutions on winning the bet!" She crooned.

  I gnced at the crystal ball held in a human skull stand on the counter and nodded at her.

  "Give me a candy."

  She just ughed and threw one at me. I quickly popped it into my mouth, then spat it out into my hand. "The caramel, not the real amber ones."

  She raised an eyebrow, watching me step up the stool to wash the candy and put it in my pocket. "Friday?" She questioned, fishing out another candy and tossing it onto the counter next to me this time.

  I shook my head, "Wednesday. I'm trying to bait her out to demand answers." She cackled, "Oh, kids," before returning to her cauldron to poke a stray eyeball back in as it floated to the surface.

  I put the correct candy into my mouth this time, pursing my lips only slightly at the inferior texture. This one had a cricket too, one of her favorite bugs to eat.

  Now what? I could try pying one of the games she made up, but it would be a bit strange to do by myself. There's no rain to soak in. I'm not sure if reading the books she'd like would even transmit to her properly... aha!

  I wanted to smack myself for not coming up with it sooner, but wasn't this the perfect chance?

  Not wasting any time, I walked to a corner and pushed on the wall. Seamless gaps in the wall revealed themselves, and the entire corner swiveled like a revolving door. In the small space between walls, a sturdy noose dangled from the ceiling. Normally I'd stick my neck in it, but I didn't want to spend time untangling if I failed the trick, so I just grabbed the end and pulled tightly.

  The noose rapidly pulled my neck upward into the darkness, and just as I felt I'd reached the right elevation, I let go, I swung and let go. The residual momentum nded me perfectly on the second floor ptform, invisible in the lightless space. If one held on to the end, they would run into a painful ceiling of nails, I knew from experience.

  Then, I swiftly ran out and entered our room, diving for the loose carpet and revealing the trapped floorboards underneath.

  …If she compins about me entering her secret room, then I’ll just say I did it to help her, and she can’t get mad!

  It was difficult to keep secrets when sharing the same brain, but not impossible. When Friday asked if she could set up a secret hideout in the space under our room, I didn’t think much of it, letting her go there whenever I was unconscious and avoiding it when I was in charge.

  But when I agreed to it, I didn’t realize just how infuriating it was to know a secret was literally hiding under my feet every day. Still, I endured patiently until the right time to strike, when she had no option to compin! Or as a future revenge plot, but luckily it didn’t come to that. Yet.

  A smile wormed its way to my lips despite myself as I ran my hand over the inset handle.

  “If you want me to look at your secret room, don’t say anything.”

  Silence.

  Don’t mind if I do. I swung the floorboard upward, quickly diving under. Rummaging around, I flipped up the light… and blinked in disappointment.

  There wasn’t much to it at all other than a huge collection of bnkets, pillows, and drawings covering the walls.

  The drawings themselves were wonderfully macabre, the vast majority featuring a cute voodoo doll girl as she got herself maimed through various misfortunes.

  One of them beheld a massive bird picking her up in the air and snapping at her button eyes, while another had her walking a tightrope in a circus while clowns threw knives at her. On and on they went, a portion of them so bizarre they bordered on comedy. But my attention was drawn to one massive drawing at the far end of the room, drawn on poster paper.

  Unlike all the others, this one beheld a rare bittersweet ending. It dispyed the doll girl smiling with relieved eyes as she sprawled out in the ground in the rain, having broken through a fming door with a fireman’s axe.

  That one’s definitely important somehow. Why did she deviate from the norm, and why is it dispyed with such prominence?

  Intrigued, I investigated further into every inch of the room, but there was nothing else but paper and art supplies. Not even secrets on the backside of the massive drawing or any of the normal ones.

  Disappointed, I found myself flopping down on the pile of cushions and bnkets in the center of the room. Blinking in confusion, I tried thrusting away the pillow that somehow made its way to my arms only to freeze at noticing the resistance in my limbs.

  “Friday!”

  I quickly called out, but she remained just as unresponsive as before. Wiggling my fingers, I realized my sister hadn’t actually taken control of the body. She was just influencing my actions unconsciously somehow.

  Given that and the fact that fabrics are piled up in here, could it be that sister actually really likes soft things? We literally shared a brain, but I’d never realized… After a moment’s debate, I sighed and resigned myself to my uncomfortably squishy fate, closing my eyes.