The Thirteenth
Part 4
"Fine, if you don't mind, let's call it a day. It's already 4 a.m. and I should stand up at half past six. I'll take her as my children are not against a new member in our 'small'", she rolled her eyes, "house for peculiar children."
"Thank you, Alma. I'll try to do my best to protect your loop, because Caul wants to do another experiment now using also his own daughter's peculiarity. So, it is a matter of time when they finally find her. I hope you understand that," He asked looking sternly in her beautiful blue eyes.
"I'm not as stupid as you might think. I know what risk I put my children at," she said in a low voice.
"I never thought of you of being stupid, maybe too kindhearted but not stupid at all," Aaron winked at her, told her 'good night' and went to the living room where Satan was sound asleep. He got into the sleeping bag and closed his eyes.
The whole house woke up at 6:12 a.m. because of a loud shrieking scream coming from the lady's bathroom. Fiona in her nightgown was standing near the sink and looking into the mirror when suddenly the door of the toilet opened and a strange skeleton with rough raven hair, black holes instead of eyes, in weirdly loose pajamas with dinosaur print appeared in the glass. Aaron immediately jumped out of the sleeping bag and was the first to storm into the bathroom which made Fiona scream even louder.
"Please, stop screaming. She won't hurt you," Aaron tried to bring the reason but the fair-haired girl didn't calm down.
"Fiona, it's alright," Miss Peregrine in her dressing gown approached the ten year old child who wrapped her arms around the ymbryne's waist and started sobbing. "Mr. Drummond, what on earth are you doing in girl's bathroom I would like to know!" Alma fumed.
"Sorry, I just wanted to see if Satan's OK," he murmured quickly and disappeared in the hall.
"I'm sorry that I frightened you," said Miss Drummond softly and staggered shakily to the sink.
Every movement and step the newcomer did so carefully as if she wanted to preserve every bit of energy that remained in her body. The girl opened the tap and started to wash her face. When she took the towel to dry her face two little feet ran into the bathroom. The youngest charge with plush toy in her arms wanted to check what all that noise was about. Satan with corner of her eye saw the small girl and froze with the towel pressed to her face.
"Good morning!" Claire greeted everyone. "What happened? Is someone hurt?" She asked with seriousness and concern in her childish voice.
"Good morning, sunshine!" Miss Peregrine greeted the little one. "No, nobody's hurt. Fiona was surprised to see our new guest."
"Oh, wonderful! We have new guests!" Claire started jumping with excitement. "It's you, isn't it?" The little one approached Satan and pulled her pajamas pants. Thank God that the girl tied a special rope of the pants tightly or Claire would have pulled them off.
"Yes, it's me," came the voice from behind the towel but the raven haired girl didn't want to cause another hysterical reaction.
"Claire, promise me that you won't scream when Miss Drummond takes away the towel from her face," spoke Miss Peregrine letting Fiona go and paying her attention to this small intruder.
"Why? Does she have an ugly scar?"
"No, but you'll see. Promise not to scream. It would be very impolite," Miss Peregrine wanted to give a solid reason for the girl.
"I promise," said Claire taking a step closer to the ymbryne searching for protection.
"Fine, Miss Drummond. You can put down the towel," she told Satan.
"Are you sure it's a good idea? Maybe it would be better if I put on my sun-glasses. They are cracked a little but at least nobody would be scared to death," asked Satan still hesitating to take away the cover from her face.
"I'm pretty sure that my children can handle any peculiarity," Alma reassured her.
"As you wish."
Satan uncovered her face.
"Wow! I can see my reflection in your eyes!" exclaimed Claire not afraid at all. "My name is Claire and this is Mr. Rabbit." She introduced herself and her toy to the new child.
"My name's Satan. It's nice to meet you Claire and Mr. Rabbit," the girl spoke showing two rows of needle like teeth.
"It's nice to meet you too, Satan. You have a very funny name, I never heard it before," the girl giggled.
Satan chuckled and completely forgot that she should keep the membranes on her eyes. Claire immediately saw the change.
"What happened to your eyes? I don't see myself in them anymore," the little girl sounded a bit offended.
"Oh, sorry. Is it better now?"
For the person who was not used to peculiarities the trick that Satan did could have been really huge and the most probable consequence for him or her was to appear in the closest asylum but Alma didn't even wink. She just observed how two thin layers of membranes came up from inside of Satan's eyes and covered the two abysses with a perfect black mirror where the ymbryne saw the reflection of the whole room.
"Yes, now it's better!" Claire agreed.
"Is this like a second lid?" Miss Peregrine couldn't help but ask.
"Kind of, it protects eyes underwater. I'm like an amphibian, you know," Satan explained with a sigh.
"And gills?" Now Alma was curious.
The child nodded and turned aside a stand-up collar of her pajamas. Right above the clavicle the woman saw two very straight cuts under which were hidden gills.
"A fin springs up from the backbone," Satan explained.
"Thank you for sharing, Miss Drummond. We live near the sea, so, you'll have the opportunity to swim. Only when you feel better," she said noticing how the child grabbed the edge of the sink to stabilize her shaky legs.
"I won't stay here," the girl said firmly.
"No, you can't leave us!" Claire pouted not wanting a new guest to go away.
"At least, until you come back to normal. I'd rather you go back to bed, Miss Drummond." Miss Peregrine emphasized.
Satan didn't answer. She turned to the mirror, took a toothbrush which she brought with her, put some toothpowder on it and began brushing her perfectly shaped teeth which resembled maybe teeth in a whale's mouth.
"Fiona, can you help Claire brush her teeth. I go change and start preparing breakfast," said Miss Peregrine to the girl who looked calm and quiet as usual.
"I can brush them myself!" Claire disagreed.
"And the back mouth too?" asked Alma surprised.
Claire pouted and folded her arms pressing Mr. Rabbit to her chest.
"Good morning, Emma. Please, make sure Miss Drummond is in her bed. I need to make breakfast," they heard ymryne's voice coming from the hall.
"Sure, Miss Peregrine," was the answer.
Fiona and Satan were silent. Satan finished brushing her teeth, took her towel and carefully went out of the room leaving Fiona to help little Claire. The raven haired girl felt awfully exhausted. That's why, she let Emma support her all the way round to bed. When she lay down, Satan turned to the back of the sofa and silent tears ran down her sunken cheeks again.
"I think she's upset about something," Emma supposed coming back to the kitchen, "Can I help you with anything?"
"In your nightgown, Miss Bloom? It would be better if you dress properly and send Fiona here. I would like to talk to her. If you see Hugh or Bronwyn, send them to me too. I don't want Miss Drummond to be attacked by bees or strangled by our pretty Hercules," the woman commented mixing eggs for the omelette.
"Of course, Miss P."
"And have you seen Mr. Drummond?"
"He's upstairs talking to Jake. I think it's about Abe," said Emma.
"OK, thank you, Emma. You may go."
Enoch jumped up in his bed when somebody knocked on the bed-side table.
"Hey, boy! You're too nervous for a lad of your age. Take it easy," came the male voice from above.
"What are you doing in my room?" grumbled Enoch irritated by this impudent guest.
"I have to talk to you because it seems to me you are the only one who has guts to speak against some decisions of your precious ymbryne," said Mr. Drummond sitting on the chair. "How do you sleep in here? This room can cause nightmares for a long period of time," he stated looking around the room full with shelves where jars with different types of hearts, bones, animal skeletons where displayed.
"Has anybody told you that it is impolite to burst into somebody's room without permission?" asked Enoch very annoyed that he was woken up at this hour.
"Listen, boy. You can talk about manners with Miss Peregrine but not with me. You may stick all that mannerism where the sun doesn't shine. I want you to keep an eye on Satan, especially, when you see that her mood is changing. Mostly she is a sweet, shy girl but three days before the 13th day of each month she can become uncontrollable. When this happens I want you to close her in the vault and don't let anyone to open the door whatever she says or whatever she does, especially, Miss Peregrine, if you want her and others to survive, of course. I know that's a huge responsibility for a 16 year-old teen but promise me that you'll protect others from Satan."
Enoch was overwhelmed by the information.
"Did you tell this Miss P.?" He asked still digesting everything the man has just told.
"Yes, of course. She means a lot for me to put her at risk. So, do you promise that you protect her and the others from that 'charming girl' downstairs?"
"If you know that she's dangerous, why did you bring her here?"
"She is the only family I have. If she dies, I have no reason left to tread this filthy planet," Aaron explained.
"What about Miss P.? You said she meant something."
"I'm immortal, boy. She is not. Living in the loop is not for me. Besides, I am sick and tired to loose people whom I like," the man confessed.
"I see. I try to help. I can do an army of puppets, you know, to stop whatever creature your niece turns into," the boy replied.
"That'd be great. Just don't harm her too much. This child suffered a lot."
Aaron shook Enoch's hand firmly.
"Are you going to stare at me like that for the whole day?" Satan asked peering with her hollow eyes at the person standing in the room.
Firstly the boy looked about the room to check that maybe somebody else has just come in and then spoke: "Are you talking to me?"
"Do you see anybody else here, nude boy?" Satan frowned at irrelevant question.
"Do you see me?" asked Millard in a shock putting his hands over the crotch.
"Yes, every single detail. Why? Do you believe that you're invisible or something?" the girl retorted really pissed off by this strange naked boy.
"My goodness!" said Millard blushing to the tip of his hair, if anybody could see it and ran out of the room like a bullet from the gun.
"Gosh, Millard! When do you finally learn to stop running about the house in your birthday suit!" Olive reprimanded the boy as he pushed her in the corridor trying to get to his room as soon as possible.
"Morning, Olive. Why did everybody wake up so early today? And what's wrong with Millard? I've never seen him putting on his clothes in such a hurry," asked Hugh going out of the room he shared with the invisible boy.
"Don't know, maybe he wanted to be polite at least once. We have guests." The red-head told him going downstairs.
"Guests?" the boy echoed.
"Oh, Hugh. You're awake. Go to Miss Peregrine," said Jake with a pile of plates that he had to put on the table.
Another crazy day at the house of peculiar children began…
To be continued…
Thank you so much for your proposal of names for the new character. Still, you can tell more of them because I haven't managed to introduce any of them, at least, in this chapter.
