Chapitre 136: Living with the Addams I
Westchester County is a county located north of New York City. It's known for being one of the wealthiest and most peaceful suburban areas in the region.
'It's true that the Addams are rich,' thought Luke as he looked at the large, luxurious houses, each with perfectly manicured gardens and entrances that hinted at the opulence inside.
The limousine turned around a bend and entered a private road, surrounded by tall trees. After a few minutes, the image of previous mansions and well-kept gardens faded away.
Luke finally caught sight of an imposing structure that contrasted with the elegance he had seen until now.
A haunted, decaying mansion with irregular towers and a dark facade. Windows in strange shapes, some partially covered by ivy or boards, and stone gargoyles perched on the ledges.
He remembered the Poe mansion in Boston, but it wasn't as rundown or eerie as the Addams mansion before him.
"What's wrong? Don't you like our mansion?" asked Gomez, looking at Luke, who had a frown on his face. Wednesday and Morticia looked at him as well.
Luke snapped back to reality upon hearing them speak to him and stopped frowning.
"It's not that. I was thinking about something else. It's a splendid mansion. Is it haunted?" asked Luke.
He had frowned upon remembering the Poe mansion. His inherited property. The Poe mansion had been uninhabited for many years because of his enemies; going to live there would be like signing his own death sentence. All the Spellmans could attack him while he slept.
A mansion that belonged to his family for who knows how many years cannot be inhabited by those bastards. That's what made him frown.
"Haunted, no, but the building has been condemned five times," Morticia responded with pride in her tone.
"Oh, that's… nice," said Luke with a strange expression.
Calling a building condemned means it has been declared unsafe or uninhabitable by the authorities, usually due to poor structural conditions or because it poses a danger to its occupants.
As they reached the main entrance, Lurch slowed down, stopping the limousine just inches from the gate, which creaked open on its own after a few seconds, revealing a stone path.
The limousine resumed its course. The road was in poor condition, with several potholes and overgrown weeds surrounding it. After a few more meters, the silhouette of the Addams mansion rose fully before them.
The sound of the engine died down. Lurch had stopped the gothic limousine a few meters from a set of stairs leading up to the mansion's main door.
As Luke stepped out of the vehicle, he noticed that Natasha had parked the Audi a little further back and had also gotten out.
"Welcome to our humble abode!" exclaimed Gomez, making a gesture toward the mansion as if presenting it.
"Nice place," Natasha said sincerely. She liked dark and gothic places to live in, like the orphanage where she hid Luke for several years and the old Poe mansion.
"Ha ha, I'm glad to hear that!" Gomez said in good spirits, laughing heartily. It had been a long time since they had guests who sincerely praised their humble home.
Lurch unloaded Wednesday's luggage, and Luke took care of his own. With telekinesis, it was easy to move his luggage; he wouldn't leave such a bothersome task to Natasha, who looked grateful for his gesture.
Gomez led the way. He opened the main door, which was covered in vegetation and creaked heavily as it swung open.
Luke entered with curious eyes, finding himself in a large, dimly lit foyer. A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling. At the end of the foyer was a wide, bifurcated wooden staircase leading to the second floor.
The walls were lined with old portraits of men and women. They were likely the Addams family ancestors. Their eyes seemed to follow Luke and the others as they entered.
What caught Luke's attention the most were the statues corroded by rust, each equipped with sharp weapons like swords, spears, and gigantic maces. Then there was a huge bear trap positioned randomly on a tile in the room. The trap was also old and worn by time.
What kind of decor was this? Were they trying to get someone to lose a leg?
"Oh, what you see is a werewolf trap. An old toy of Wednesday's," said Morticia, her voice soft and elegant as she followed Luke's gaze. She smiled, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
'Werewolf trap…?' thought Luke, frowning.
"The rust on its metal is special. It has the ability to inhibit the accelerated healing of werewolves. If a wolf were to fall into the trap, it wouldn't just be caught, but the enchanted rust on its teeth would disrupt its regeneration ability for several minutes, leaving it vulnerable," Morticia explained.
"Unfortunately," Wednesday added, joining the conversation, "there are no werewolves around. I never managed to catch one. The closest I got was with a hiker who wandered through the forest surrounding Westchester County on a full moon night. I set the trap and stepped back to watch."
"And what happened?" asked Luke, intrigued by Wednesday's pause. He wanted to hear the entire story.
"He fell into the trap. I thought he might transform at any moment, but it turned out he was just a normie," Wednesday replied with slight disappointment as she recalled that scene from her childhood.
"And what happened to the man?" Natasha asked a little curiously and a little strangely about Wednesday's way of having fun as a child. Now she understood why the rumors of the Addams' strangeness.
"He lost his leg," Wednesday replied in the same monotone as before, without changing her expression.
"You left him bleeding out in the middle of the forest at night?" Luke asked with a strange expression. The story was surreal.
"No. I carried him here, and my grandmother reattached his leg, putting it back in its original position," Wednesday responded.
"Oh, I remember that scene! Little Wednesday coming into the house in the middle of the night, carrying an unknown man with a blood-soaked leg about to fall off," Gomez said, laughing.
Morticia smiled, reminiscing. "She was so adorable back then. I was surprised by her willingness to help a normie," she said with a certain pride, as she didn't share the supremacist ideals of other outcasts who saw normies as animals, better off dead.
Wednesday said nothing to this comment and began to walk up the stairs.
"You must be very hungry! Lurch will take you to your rooms. In thirty minutes, my mother's meal will be ready. It will be a delight," Gomez said.
Luke and Natasha followed Lurch, who first carried Wednesday's luggage to her room.
At the first landing, the staircase split into two sections, one to the right and one to the left, each curving elegantly upwards to the higher floors.
Wednesday, who was leading, turned to the right, and the others followed her down a narrow, dark hallway. Their footsteps creaked on the wooden floor.
Wednesday stopped at a black wooden door. She opened it, took her luggage from Lurch's hands, and, without a word, stepped inside and closed the door.
'What lovely hospitality,' Luke thought as he continued following Lurch. After a few steps, they reached another door.
Lurch extended his enormous hand and clumsily turned the knob. He looked at Luke and gave a slight gesture accompanied by a low grunt.
With a small nod of thanks, Luke entered the room, handing a simple suitcase, belonging to Natasha, to Lurch, who continued guiding her silently to her own room.
The room was nearly pitch dark. Thanks to his vision enhanced by clairvoyance, Luke could see, though not at full capacity. He reached out to the wall, looking for a light switch, but found nothing.
'Should've guessed…' Luke thought with a slight grimace. The Addams don't have electricity, and the house runs on candles, like something out of the Middle Ages.
Luckily, he found a three-candle candelabra, the kind held by a handle. On a nearby table, he spotted an old-fashioned box of matches. After a few attempts, he managed to light the candles, and the flickering light dimly illuminated the room.
The room was medium-sized, with a four-poster bed in the center. A large, antique-looking wardrobe stood against one wall, its doors slightly ajar. Luke placed his luggage near the wardrobe.
In one corner, a pair of shackles and an old torture wheel hung on the wall, as if they were ordinary decorative items.
Lastly, a four-legged wooden table and a chair sat in front of the window. At least he could set up his MacBook there.
'Who keeps these things in a guest room?' Luke thought, increasingly astonished by the Addams' oddities.
Experiencing it firsthand and meeting them in person was much stranger than watching the series or movies. He was in love with Wednesday and shared many things in common with her, but not everything.
He would never live in a house without electricity or internet. Nor was he a fan of torture, although he was now being introduced to this art by Wednesday.
He walked toward one of the windows, covered by an old, torn curtain. He tugged on the fabric, trying to open it to let in some light from outside, but soon realized the window was sealed. Wooden boards were nailed across the frames, blocking any possibility of opening it.
"Of course..." Luke muttered, collapsing onto the bed, which, to his surprise, was quite comfortable. He just hoped no cockroaches or spiders would crawl over him while he slept.
Lying on the bed, he pulled out his cell phone from one of his pockets and, luckily, had mobile data, meaning he had Wi-Fi access. He didn't need to worry about that since he could use his phone as a hotspot to give Wi-Fi to his laptop.
After a few minutes of passing the time on his phone, someone knocked on the door. He got up and opened it, and as expected, it creaked.
It was Wednesday, now dressed in her classic outfit. A black long-sleeved dress with a rounded white collar. The dress reached her knees, with a skirt that was neither too tight nor too wide. She wore opaque black tights that completely covered her legs, and closed black shoes.
Her hair, as usual, was styled in two perfectly symmetrical braids that fell over her shoulders.
"Why are you staring so much?" Wednesday asked, noticing that Luke wasn't looking at her face but examining her from head to toe.
"I can kiss you but not look at you?" Luke replied with a slight smile.
"I find it unnecessary. It's not the first time you've seen me in this outfit," Wednesday answered, entirely without humor. During weekends at Nevermore, she had worn that dress on multiple occasions.
"Dinner is served," she added before turning away, walking toward the dining room without bothering to say anything more.
'Her social battery seems completely drained. I'd better stop trying to annoy her,' Luke thought, keeping up with Wednesday so he wouldn't get lost in the enormous mansion.
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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Power Stone 
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