Capítulo 144: The cruelty of Goody Addams
"Shall we take it?" Luke asked, eyeing Goody Addams' book with a hint of curiosity. Witchcraft could grant you very useful powers and boost your strength. Like Natasha, who managed to transform her body into metals or weapons—something a natural shapeshifter couldn't achieve.
Besides, Goody's book had already been tested by her, a powerful psychic of her time, so the chances of the rituals going wrong were very low. There was no need to conduct trial-and-error research, constantly putting oneself in danger; all the groundwork had already been done.
"No... unfortunately, my mother doesn't want me to read this book. We'll only read the resurrection ritual to understand exactly how it's done and then put it back," Wednesday replied with a frown.
Her mother always let her play with dangerous things: knives, enormous axes, sharp swords, poisonous insects, and much more, but she was very strict about Goody Addams' book of witchcraft.
"What would she say if she found out you want to steal one of the six demonic books?" Luke asked with a slight smile.
"I'd like to see her expression," Wednesday said, opening the book and starting to search for the resurrection ritual.
The book had no index, so it took them quite a while to find the necromancy ritual that explained in detail how to revive the dead.
Luke flipped through the book quickly, while Wednesday calmly turned the pages. Every time his eyes landed on a paragraph, he found something more disturbing than the last.
One section detailed terrifying potions, with grotesque illustrations that made him frown. One of the most chilling described a potion that caused a giant spider to grow on your head, replacing your hair.
The spider's legs tangled with your scalp and were even visible to you. The most disturbing part was that the spider was alive and would become a part of you forever. If anyone tried to kill it, you'd feel unbearable pain, so the only option was to live with it.
Another section detailed slow-acting poisons, designed not just to kill but to prolong suffering to the maximum. Victims would die in screams of agony, their pain stretched over days or even weeks.
'Goody Addams was definitely out of her mind,' Luke thought with a grimace of disgust as his eyes continued scanning the grotesque formulas and rituals. Some of these ideas were so macabre that even he, used to the cruel world of outcasts, felt slightly unsettled. Crackstone hadn't been wrong in calling her an evil witch.
He could understand why Morticia didn't want Wednesday reading that book. Although both mother and daughter enjoyed the macabre and the dark, they weren't that extreme in their methods. Morticia, though strange and eccentric, had a clear ethical code.
Many of the formulas in that book weren't just twisted; they were specifically designed to cause unnecessary and cruel harm, with no purpose beyond pain and destruction.
Morticia enjoyed mystery, darkness, and the supernatural, but not senseless cruelty. She didn't want her daughter to follow that path.
Wednesday wasn't fazed by the rituals, potions, and other grotesque formulas in the book. In fact, her eyes seemed more interested in some sections than others.
"I can see why your mother doesn't want you to have this book," Luke remarked. Even he found it overly gruesome, and he'd turned a couple of people into lumps of flesh.
Wednesday glanced at him from the corner of her eye without pausing her exploration of the book. "Maybe you don't understand the beauty of limits," she replied in a neutral tone.
"Who says limits are good?" she added, still in a neutral tone. "Limits are just chains that bind us to the mundane. There's an art to exploring the forbidden."
Luke decided not to say anything.
Finally, they found the ritual they were looking for.
"Read it, too. My memory is good, but I don't want to take any chances. Even the slightest mistake, and the ritual could backfire on us," Wednesday said, knowing that Luke had an eidetic memory.
In a short time, Luke read through the necromancy ritual, which covered a few pages. Unlike the undead ritual the Spellmans had used, this one was much better. The revived person retained consciousness and intelligence, and their body parts didn't fall apart like the zombies that had attacked Nevermore.
Luke wondered how Goody would react if she knew Crackstone would be resurrected using her ritual. Most likely, she'd created this ritual before her battle with the demonic normie, as part of her personal research.
Thinking about this, he realized something. The blood moon. The lunar eclipse.
"We forgot something..." Luke murmured, and Wednesday looked at him with a raised eyebrow, not understanding his comment.
"The lunar eclipse," Luke said, meeting Wednesday's gaze. She immediately understood what he meant.
Marilyn wanted to revive Crackstone during a lunar eclipse for a reason. That reason must be because Crackstone could only be resurrected during a lunar eclipse. Otherwise, she could have chosen another night. The Spellmans wouldn't have been forced to attack Nevermore on the night of the eclipse, when everyone was expecting it.
Typically, each year has at least two lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses, though there can be up to three lunar eclipses and four solar, depending on the year.
"There should be at least one more lunar eclipse this year. When? I don't know," Wednesday broke the silence, looking resigned. She couldn't believe she'd forgotten something so important.
"Relax. I have the answer," Luke said, pulling out his phone. After a few minutes of searching, a slight smile appeared on his face.
"What? Tell me," Wednesday said impatiently.
"August 15th will be the second eclipse. There's also going to be a third at the end of the year," Luke replied.
"That's good. Almost two months. Enough time to collect the dismembered parts," Wednesday said, more at ease. If the eclipse had been in September or later, her plans would have fallen apart.
"See? Having a phone is useful, Miss Anti-Technology," Luke said with a mocking smile. Wednesday rolled her eyes slightly but didn't argue this time.
After that, they put the book back in its place and left the study the same way they had entered. The mission was a success.
"Want to watch a movie? We can go to your room or mine," Luke suggested as he walked down a hallway, shoulder to shoulder with Wednesday.
"I can't. I have to practice my cello. Then I'll be going to bed," Wednesday replied after a few seconds, during which she seemed to hesitate, though Luke didn't notice in the dimly lit hallways.
'Mission failed again,' Luke thought, sighing inwardly.
They usually watched movies together, most of them horror, bloody, or dealing with controversial themes, but now Luke's intentions were different from watching the movie.
Luke wanted to take things to the next level, but he didn't want to come across as desperate. He also knew Wednesday was someone who struggled with physical contact. Something that intimate would be hard to achieve quickly, so he didn't want to overwhelm her.
He could wait and be patient, but he needed to test the waters now and then, as it was hard to tell from her blank, emotionless expression if she was ready to take the next step.
Wednesday reached the door to her room and said goodnight to Luke with a simple nod.
'She won't even give me a goodnight kiss, and here I am wanting that with her,' Luke thought, shaking his head as he stood in front of Wednesday's closed door.
He continued on to his own room. Once there, he changed into his sleep clothes and collapsed onto his bed. His eyes drifted to an old bedside table where a necklace rested—the necklace in which Edgar resided.
Since they arrived at the Addams mansion, Edgar had stopped appearing and only communicated with Luke telepathically, so his interaction with the chatty ghost had decreased.
After Luke learned about his parents, he began to talk less with Edgar, as the ghost had known the truth and never told him. He couldn't deny that he was somewhat upset about it.
He was just a chess piece in the war between the Spellmans and the Poes. In fact, he was the last piece of the Poes—the last member of the family bearing the name.
'The fallen family… Should I try to rebuild it?' Luke thought, staring at the ceiling, his head resting on the pillow.
Revenge was something he once relished, especially when he thought his parents had sacrificed themselves to save him. Thinking about that had fueled his desire to crush the Spellmans. But now that fuel was gone.
It was true that the Spellmans had blood on their hands—many members of the Poe family had died because of them. But Luke hadn't known those relatives, so it was hard to use that as fuel. He hadn't known his parents either, but he believed they had sacrificed themselves for him, and they were his parents.
'Anyway, I have to fight,' Luke thought, pushing those ideas aside.
The Spellmans wouldn't stop trying to kill him, even if he didn't want to continue the feud. Besides, he already felt hatred toward them. They had attempted to kill him multiple times. They couldn't coexist.
His thoughts drifted to the resurrection ritual created by Goody Addams. Specifically, it required two legs, two arms, a torso, a heart, and a brain.
Each part had to come from different people, and they all had to have been alive before being mutilated. After the mutilation, the person had to die—the ritual wouldn't work otherwise if they were kept alive.
The ritual had to be performed during a lunar eclipse, when the moon appeared a reddish color. According to the book, this was when the energies of the occult reached their peak.
Then there was the usual setup: drawing a circle with engraved runes on the ground, and in the center of the circle, drawing a star with specific symbols on each point of the star.
'Looks like I'm going to turn into some damn member of a devil-worshiping cult,' Luke thought with a slight grimace. Luckily, Wednesday would be handling that part of the ritual.
They had nearly two months to gather all the mutilated parts. As for the trip to Ohio, he and Natasha had decided to go there once the holidays were over, to prepare as much as possible.
Natasha was taking care of gathering the necessary ingredients for the gender-change potion Luke would use. The potion wasn't permanent and only lasted a few hours, according to Natasha. Luke would then spend time in a house or undercover in the two small towns.
Natasha needed to make a sizable batch of these potions and was handling that, along with creating false identities for the three of them and other preparations for the trip.
She told Luke to focus on his training, saying she was used to these kinds of missions and preferred handling all the tedious prep work on her own.
Thinking about these things, Luke's eyes closed, and within minutes, he slipped into a deep, restful sleep.
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