Chapter 114 Wednesday’s Visit

Chapter 114: Chapter 115: Wednesday’s Visit

Chapter 115: Wednesday’s Visit

By the time Axel Vance returned to the old mansion, the eastern sky was already beginning to brighten. Clarice Starling and Doug had been waiting in the living room all night, and both immediately rose when they heard the front door open. Clarice’s eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep as she asked, "How bad was it?"

Axel leaned the Chainsaw Sword against the wall and rolled the stiffness from his shoulders. "The Sunset Gang stronghold is finished, and Butcher Barlow is dead. The problem is that the Church of Science had modified him into another enhanced monster, except this one could regenerate fast enough that even severed pieces of him kept moving."

Doug’s expression became solemn at once. Until now, he had known the people who imprisoned him were connected to something powerful, but this was the first time Axel had described the organization’s experiments so directly. "Did you find anything that might lead us back to them?"

"One clue," Axel replied. "Jigsaw’s people recovered the syringe Barlow used before the fight, and one of them recognized it as heavy-duty equipment associated with large-animal treatment or specialized research." He crossed the room and added, "The most likely local source is an animal-research or veterinary-support facility connected to Miami Central Medical Center."

Clarice frowned immediately. "A medical complex that size is a nightmare to investigate quietly. Thousands of patients, staff, deliveries, restricted areas, research facilities—and right now I can’t exactly walk in carrying an FBI order." Without official Bureau support, forcing a search would risk tipping off the Church of Science while creating chaos around innocent people.

Doug thought for a moment before looking toward Axel. "My family can watch the outside. Dogs can move around the grounds and surrounding streets without anyone wondering why they’re there." There was no hesitation in his voice, and Axel nodded after considering it.

"Do it, but don’t put them in unnecessary danger," Axel said. "If anything unusual starts moving in or out of that complex, tell me first." Doug agreed, and with the immediate briefing finished, Axel finally went upstairs to sleep.

Unfortunately, the investigation slowed almost immediately afterward. Several days passed without Jigsaw’s network finding anything useful, while Doug’s dogs watched the medical center around the clock and saw nothing stranger than doctors, patients, deliveries, ambulances, and normal hospital traffic. From the outside, Miami Central Medical Center looked exactly like what it claimed to be.

Axel became increasingly restless and spent time checking several neighborhoods where Miami gangs normally made themselves impossible to ignore. The result was almost unsettling in its normality, because groups that had previously acted loud and fearless were suddenly keeping their heads down. Even habitual troublemakers seemed determined not to attract police attention.

The meaning was obvious enough. After losing the cannery, Barlow, and several other assets, the Church of Science had pulled everything underground and ordered its associates to stop making noise. They were behaving like frightened rats hiding deep inside the walls until the danger passed.

With no immediate lead to chase, Axel reluctantly returned his attention to the mansion. He tested the Blood Jade with both Psionic Power and Color of the Stars, but the strange heart-shaped artifact remained stubbornly unresponsive. Lionel continued studying it separately through Spirit Binding, yet neither approach revealed how to safely integrate it with the Chainsaw Sword.

Dr. Seth Brundle’s telepod work was progressing even worse. Several more test objects emerged from the prototype as useless masses, sometimes preserving their exterior shape while scrambling everything inside. Seth finally declared that he would brute-force his way through the remaining possibilities if necessary and started planning additional laboratory upgrades so he could run more experiments.

Days of failure gradually settled over the mansion like bad weather. Everyone had something to work on, yet nothing important seemed to be moving forward, and Axel was beginning to consider whether simply visiting the medical center himself would be better than waiting forever. Before his patience completely ran out, however, an unexpected visitor changed the mood.

That afternoon, Axel sat in the living room maintaining the Chainsaw Sword while Lionel Cosgrove worked on his bone knife nearby. Carrie White had several books floating above the dining table, carefully turning their pages one at a time as part of her fine-control practice. The house was unusually quiet until three firm knocks sounded from the front door.

All three stopped what they were doing. "I’ll get it," Lionel said, slipping the bone knife away before approaching the entrance and checking outside. The sight beyond the peephole made him pause.

A pale little girl stood on the porch in a black dress with a white collar and cuffs. Her dark hair was divided into two perfectly neat braids, and her expression carried all the warmth of a gravestone in winter. Lionel hesitated before opening the door. "Uh... who are you looking for?"

Wednesday Addams did not answer. She simply looked him over once, stepped around him, and entered as though the mansion already belonged to somebody she knew. Her attention immediately settled on Carrie and the books hovering above the table.

Wednesday watched for several seconds before saying, "Your control is crude. You move everything like an elephant trying to learn ballet." Her expression did not change as she added, "I stopped practicing like that when I was barely old enough to remember it."

The floating books dropped simultaneously.

Carrie stared at the tabletop, her face turning bright red as humiliation destroyed her concentration. Wednesday appeared completely unconcerned by the effect and shifted her attention toward Lionel instead.

Her eyes settled on the bone knife at his waist. "Did you kill your mother?" Lionel froze so completely that Axel nearly laughed before he managed a nervous, "Yes, but there were circumstances."

Wednesday nodded once. "And now you carry a weapon made from her bones. Good." Lionel stared at her, clearly having prepared himself for horror, judgment, or at least a follow-up question, only to receive approval instead.

Axel finally broke into laughter and set the Chainsaw Sword aside. He walked over and ruffled Wednesday’s perfectly arranged hair, saying, "Don’t worry about her, Lionel. That’s just Wednesday being Wednesday, and this house could use something besides people looking miserable all day."

Wednesday immediately stepped away and fixed her braids with visible annoyance. Lionel looked at Axel and muttered, "I still don’t think killing your mother belongs in the category of uplifting conversation." Carrie kept her head lowered, apparently hoping Wednesday would forget the telekinesis criticism.

Wednesday ignored both of them and looked up at Axel. "I’ve been waiting. Where is the Holy Water you promised me?" The smile on Axel’s face froze as the forgotten conversation returned to him all at once.

"Holy Water," Axel repeated, rubbing his forehead. Between Barlow, the Church of Science, Jigsaw, Doug, and the stalled hospital investigation, the promise had completely slipped his mind. "Right. I may have gotten slightly distracted."

Wednesday stared at him.

Her expression remained perfectly flat.

Somehow, that made the dissatisfaction much clearer.

Axel scratched the back of his head. "I’ve been busy, but that’s my fault. I’ll prepare it now, and you won’t have to wait much longer." Since she had come all the way from the Addams mansion herself, forgetting the promise felt worse than Axel wanted to admit.

He turned toward the kitchen, but Wednesday caught the edge of his clothing before he could leave. Axel looked back and asked, "What?" Her gaze had shifted toward the Chainsaw Sword resting against the furniture, where faint dried stains from the previous battle were still visible.

"Are you in trouble?" she asked.

Axel hesitated briefly before nodding. "A little. There’s an organization calling itself the Church of Science, and they’ve figured out ways to turn people into monsters that are extremely difficult to kill." Wednesday tilted her head as though the supernatural experiments were less confusing than the organization’s choice of branding.

"Church of Science?" she repeated.

Axel nodded.

Wednesday’s expression remained completely serious. "That’s a stupid name."

Axel looked at her for a moment before giving an immediate nod of agreement. "I thought so too."

[500 PS unlocks 1 Extra Chapter]

[10 Reviews unlock 1 Extra Chapter]

Thanks for reading-reviews are appreciated.

P1treon Soulforger has 20+advance Chapters