He didn't like it. When Jake waltz in and there was that sparkle in her eyes. He hated it. It is obvious that Jake is nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps like Abe his peculiarity lies amongst a floor of broken hearts, but not one of them would belong to Olive that's for sure. Or at least he thought he was sure up until he found the redhead no longer standing beside him on the staircase, but peeking at the door frame of the kitchen, staring at Miss Peregrine's new guest smiling at something she said.
"Olive, dear" She called, "Would you mind coming in and making our guest some tea?" Her quick feet did not hesitate, Enoch's fists clenched as firm as the stone hearts of the dead he reanimates. He turned his heels, ready to redirect his dissatisfaction with everyone in this house into his lab before the sound of Viktor's taunt ring from the back of his mind,
"Coward." he called, "Are you just going to run because everyone seems smothered by him?"
"Just go away Vik" he muttered under his breath, of one that works magic with his hands, his extraordinary brilliance is unfortunately not documented as a peculiarity. Understanding completely that the Vik that cradled him was nothing more than the figment of his imagination, created to fill the empty void after his best mate was taken by a hollowgast.
"I can't be shooed away and you know why," Vik said, staring down from the top of the staircase, "But sure Olive can." Enoch's eyes were filled with rage at the thought,
"No she will not be leaving," he said sternly, "I'm quite certain of that since there's no reason for her to." descending from the stairs, "It's Olive we're talking about here, not that it matters if she does."
"A guy that is the grandson of Abe," said Vik, "along with the mysterious demeanor, sure there's nothing for her to chase after." with a smile tugging on the corner of his mouth, "or for him, her."
Enoch strutted past Vik into the study next to the kitchen, only to catch Olive heating up water to make tea for Jake. What's so good about the Portmans anyways he found himself asking, trying to erase the memory of the past Portman that used to live with them until he found the next best thing and join the war. Enoch thought it was never fair that Abe could start a family whilst the rest of them are bound to stay eternally young in the company of each other, but that was before Olive came along.
"So you're Olive?" asked the raven haired boy,
"Yes. And you're Jake, as in Abe's grandson?" Olive excitedly inquired,
"Yea… It must be rather strange for you to meet me I guess? You know, since you've only ever remembered my grandfather as a teenager." His awkward shrugged earned a light giggle from the red head
"Not really. But I guess you do take after him in terms of your features."
At the corner of his eyes Enoch saw something that caused the pile of mechanical anatomy books to stumble from his hands, Olive's gloved hands brushing across Jake's face affectionately. The loud thump had the pair turn and look from the kitchen, in his hazel eyes Olive saw nothing but hurt and betrayal. She dropped her hand immediately, not realizing how her previous action could have been misinterpreted. This is not what I have intended for Olive to think of me, a creep? NEVER in the lifetime that this loop survives, Enoch thought to himself. So he stood up and left, with Olive trailing after his rapid steps they found themselves alone in his private study.
"Enoch," called Olive, catching her breath, "It's not what you think."
"Oh is it not that you were being overly friendly to our new guest?" Enoch spat, as his towering body advances towards her, trapping those innocent green eyes between the door and himself.
"I was just having a normal conversation with -" the look of fear on her face was replaced by something unrecognizable to Enoch from their previous encounters, confidence it seemed like, and it was his cue to back off.
"It's not about Jake is it?" asked the fiery girl, a smirk hanging from the corner of her mouth, "You are jealous."
The crack of his voice reminded him of those unintimidating days he spent restlessly alongside his father.
He remembered that in the crowd there used to stood a girl whom he would try to impress every single time. He would even go out of his way and had the puppets deliver flowers or notes to her sometimes, and they used to meet behind that rugged store his father owned and spent hours telling each other stories of their imaginary ventures. Some which stayed longer than their young hostess after learning the truth about those puppets that used to crack a smile on her tan skin, replaced by the look of fear, Enoch never saw her ever since. His observant mother once told him that the girl probably moved away with her lieutenant father in preparation for the war coming but Enoch knew better than most fourteen-year olds. What scared the girl away was no bloodshed or warfare, the real monster lives inside of him the entire time.
"No. I'm not." he sternly replied, resuming his usual composed self.
"Then explain why you are angry to see me hanging around Jake?" Olive asked, unconvinced. What soiled between the unspoken lines was years of aspirations, of that one day he would confess that he felt the same way about her too, and that they would have something as wonderful as Emma and Abe.
"Who do you think you are Olive?" He watched as pieces of confidence tore from her porcelain complexion,
"Since the beginning there was only one person that I have cared for, and he is one very dead corpse laying a floor above us." once again he released her from between the wall and his chest,
"I was just taken back by your promiscuousness around anything that is new and flashy." The moment those spiteful words left his lips he wanted to retrieve them. It was, however, impossible now to force his icy blue eyes from tracing the single drop of tear breaking off from her beautiful emerald greens.
"Olive I..."
"Promiscuous huh?" Her blithe gaze had never looked so defunct,
"No Olive that is not what I meant -" in his mind recalling the part of her past known not even by Miss Peregrine. The past that explained the scars rooted in the waterfall of fire covering her neck, the becoming of her peculiarity.
Undiscovered, until she could take no more of her uncle's night visits into her bedroom. So she blazed, did too her bedroom, then her house along with her ignorant parents who followed the last piece of ash. Fury scrubbed the house clean, not a splinter left to reminisce over. Then, like the pouring rain on the last bit of her kindle, her childhood was extinguished that night. She told herself it's only a matter of time that they would grow suspicious of the only Elephanta surviving.
"It's okay Enoch." Olive's tired voice came to break him chain of remembrance, but it was a second too late for any of them to dismiss the momentary silence as an item of unimportance.
"It was rude for me to intrude." she said, steadily heading out the door, but his guilt tangled his legs from running after her, he just watched her go; Like he did the last time he broke out with Victor, which ended up being Viktor's last outbreak to anyone.
