Private Kicking the door down

Wednesday was slipping back into old habits.

It's obvious just how much the reminder of her impending death had left her rattled, and the empty space in her mind that her feline familiar had occupied left her more occupied with her thoughts than ever.

The loft above the shop was silent when Sazz arrived, and when he approached her room he could practically feel the magic faraday cage she'd constructed within to keep herself insulated from everything.

Still, despite the part of her saying otherwise, the young witch knew there wasn't getting out of this conversation, so after a moment she silently opened the door.

She looked, to put it plainly, terrible. Normally she'd at least put a token effort into looking nice knowing Sazz was coming over but she hadn't even bothered with that. Her hair, in a rare sight, was down, messy and hanging loosely along her back, and bags were under her eyes.

"Hey..." She said, awkwardly, shuffling aside to let him inside. She moved to take a sit on her bed, fidgeting quietly with her hands, nervously waiting for him to speak.

The ball, it seemed, was in his court.

Wednesday took a deep, shuddering breath, resigning herself to the hug, just trying to be as comfortable as she can within his arms. She didn't want to lie to him, she knew herself well enough to where she doubted she'd be able to promise that even if she wanted to. So she settled for silence.

"...I guess I owe you an explanation," She broke the quiet after a wall, small sigh as she pulled herself up straight, breaking the hug. "Where should I start?"

"Right, yeah..." She couldn't stop fidgeting nervously, nor could she bring herself to meet his eye as she took another breath.

"We um, the coven I mean, we keep a lot of secrets. I'm not going to tell you the things related to the others without them here. But...I can at least tell you about the things pertaining to me. So I guess I can start with that."

At this point, Wednesday realised she was still stalling. She pulled her legs close to her body, hesitant. Most of the important people in her life already knew these things, explaining it to someone new was, well, new.

"A very, very long time ago, my ancestors were part of a ritual to summon...well, something. It didn't work, and our entire family line got cursed by this...thing."

She curled into herself further as she went on.

"...We call it The Hunger. It's been hunting us ever since then. Everything my family has done has been to try and stop it. But...there's so much we don't understand..." Her voice was quiet, fragile, tears welling in her eye as she explained. "We know it bends space around it when it arrives, but even then I don't know if it's even conscious of what it's doing or even how it finds us in the first place. We didn't even know what it looked like until..."

Her hand briefly brushed against her eyepatch, gesturing to the cursed eye behind it.

"Even with this, I'm, well...I don't know how to describe what I saw when I looked at it..."

She lifted her glasses up to rub at her eye.

"Most of my family are dead. Only a few of my brothers are alive. They sent me here because they thought I'd have the best chance of finding a solution, and then scatted so The Hunger couldn't get us."

Finally, she managed to bring herself to look at him, voice quivering.

"So...that's why we got attacked. I'm...I didn't tell you this was a risk and I put you in danger, and I'm so...so sorry..."

“If it were really that simple it would have been done centuries ago, Sazz,” Wednesday said, a hint of frustration creeping into her voice as she pulled herself tighter, frail muscles tensing just a little. “So many people far more powerful and knowledgeable than me have tried, and it’s only made things worse.”

Her gaze went low again as the tears continued to accumulate.

“It...takes from us, every time we try to stop it. Even just trying to find out more left me with, well, this.”

She gestured to her eyepatch again.

“There’s a reason I can barely do anything physical, Sazz. I’m as weak as I am because we already tried and failed.”

She looked like she was about to continue, but then she fell silent, the words actually taking a moment to sink in.

She slowly raised her head, turning to face him properly, eye going wide as the tears started to fall fully.

She sobbed once, then suddenly her arms were wrapping around him again, her face buried into his shirt as she started to break down again.

"I-I've seen people die before Sazz," She choked out between the tears. "I've watched my family get torn apart in front of me one by one and I know it wants me too and I'm terrified and-and-"

She took a long, shuddering breath, and continued, quieter.

"I'm a danger to everyone around me Sazz, don't you see? We...this is our problem to solve. Anyone else who gets involved is in danger, I-I...I don't want you to die either. Every moment you spend with me is a risk. Please just...just stop..."