MILLARD's POV

She stays rooted in her place, her arms and legs going stiff, the nerves jutting out from her neck. Slowly, she floats up in the air.

"Soleil!" Yuan shouts. He was positioned to run over to her, but another growl from behind him makes him stop. He and Marlon try to attack it.

Oh my god, it's going to eat her, oh my god no...

I grab my axe and a gun that was lying on the ground near me and aim for the hollow. Even before the bullets hit it though, it wails very loudly – so loud that I almost thought my eardrums were going to explode – in intense pain and drops Soleil hard on the ground with a thump. The drop was too high not to break at least one of her bones.

"Oh my God!" Bronwyn shouts as we run over to her.

The hollow howls again, clearly angry. Soleil's body jerks before the hollow gives out another pained yell. Soleil jerks again and shrieks, her whole body trying to wriggle free from whatever force was pinning her to the ground. The hollow's wails have gone completely silent, thus giving me courage to come near her.

"Soleil! Are you hurt?" I ask, kneeling before her head.

She retches and clamps her eyes shut. "Get it off me, please, get it off, get it off," she whispers. The hollow, completely lifeless, landed on top of her, drooling and bleeding. One of her hands moves from its place and wipes relentlessly at her face. The smell makes me cringe.

"Wyn!" I call out. "Help me out!"

I feel for the hollow above Soleil's trapped body and end up touching two of its rough, slimy tongues and its loose skin. I'm pretty sure my face is all crumpled up by now.

Gulping and mustering up all the courage I have inside me, I lift two of the tongues and direct Bronwyn where the limbs of the hollow possibly are. Henry and Vidya help too, and soon enough Soleil is free from the dead, rotten, stinky body of the hollowgast. She crawls shakily, hands outstretched. Her fingers brush my shoulder and the next thing I know is she's clinging to me. My cheeks turn to a light shade of pink.

"Those things are horrible," she gasps out. Her dress was so damp with invisible goo, but I hug her back anyway.

I grab her by the shoulders, the pitch of my voice going higher due to alarm. "H-How did you kill it?"

Soleil looks down, breathing hard. "I don't know,"

"Did it bite you?"

"I don't know," she squeaks.

"There are only a dozen beds in there, meaning some of us will have to share rooms. You know what I mean, little brother." Says Kate, winking at Paul. He groans.

We were in what seems to be the house's living room. There were three couches here, two of them long and the other a single-person one. On the wall near me was a calendar which showed the date of this loop. It was February 2, 1895. None of us was older than today so we were fine. I was sitting on the floor, near the fire, my jacket wrapped around me. I was waiting for my turn to use the shower for I was indeed stinky. It was a cold and breezy night.

Melina raises her hand. "Joel-and-Peter will stay with me,"

"I'll share with Bronwyn!" exclaims Olive.

Kate shrugs. "Fair enough. One more pair, I think?" She squints. "Yep. One more."

The room was even more quiet than a library. Kate rolls her eyes in frustration. "If you guys don't speak up now, I'm gonna ask Yuan to pair you up. He'll know who won't want to be paired with who. And I'm gonna tell 'im to make sure you'll regret it."

The children all look at each other, each of them expecting someone to speak up and share his or her room, but nothing comes out from anybody's mouths. I would happily offer my room to Soleil, but if I do, wouldn't that be too obvious? And would she even let me? Plus, that would be too awkward. I let the thought float in my imagination for a little while though.

Kate sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Don't blame me for anything, you guys asked for it," she goes upstairs, where Yuan was investigating Miss Condor's former study. A minute or so after, he yells.

"Enoch and Horace!" he says with a chuckle.

"What the hell?" said Enoch. Horace's eyes widen out.

"You heard him," said Kate, winking both at Enoch and Horace.

"I'm not sharing a room with anybody, particularly cowards," He glares at Horace who only hides his face by adjusting his top hat. Is he actually blushing?

Kate raises an eyebrow. "Then you should've said earlier,"

This strange sight causes me to feel a little awkward, considering Horace sits in front of me. I could see every movement and emotion that he shows, and it only confirms my suspicions even more. Horace's entire face was red, though you'd only notice it if you really looked close at him. His eyes wandered to different places but avoided one particular spot – Enoch's seat. I smile to myself despite being uncomfortable gaining this knowledge about the two.

Soleil walks over to me, startling me a little. We left her inside a room, as she wanted to be alone for a while. I knocked a few times an hour ago, but she didn't answer. I figured she'd be asleep. Of course we checked on her first, but there were no injuries at all. She said she wasn't even in pain. This took us all by surprise.

"You said you think you have it figured out, right?" said Soleil.

I shrug. "I think so, but I'm not entirely sure, are you okay?"

Soleil nods. "Explain to me then," she pulls me up and leads me to the back door. Outside there was a clear, glass table with curved, metal legs. Two metal chairs made out of curved, white-painted metal were on either sides of it. A few feet away from us were an old swing set and a slide. They were rusty, thus making the place look sadder than it already is.

We take each of the chairs and sit down. "I get what you mean by 'deflected', but what I don't get is how,"

I sigh, rub my hands and ready myself for a long discussion. "I have related this situation with the one with your husband – " I don't know why, but I felt the need to emphasize the word. "-and from what I've inferred it seems that – "

"That what?" Soleil interrupts, leaning closer to listen.

"It seems that whatever injury or harm one tries to inflict upon you, is instead inflicted on the attacker himself,"

She leans back, nodding at my theory. "Does it go like, for example... If you tried to cut me, I would not be harmed at all?"

"Not at all."

"And you will be?" I nod.

She crinkles her nose in disgust. "Oh my gosh, that's awful!"

I laugh and lean back to my seat as well. "How is it awful? It's actually very powerful, come to think of it. No wonder the wights tried to take it for themselves, as your power is a great... Mode of both offense and defense,"

Soleil perks up at this. "Speaking of, how come they were able to inject me with those needles and serums and whatever those things were? I mean, even the needle itself pricking my skin is harmful, right?"

I shrug. "Every peculiarity has a weakness. We just have to discover what yours is. But perhaps they gave you something that could numb your senses, and thus numbing your peculiar abilities as well. Did they?"

"They always gave me those,"

"Then it's possible that that's the reason behind your weakness. Unconscious, you wouldn't have control over your power. Or maybe it has something to do with your emotions. Don't you think?"

She stands up from her chair and walks to me with a determined look on her face. "I don't know but let's find out. Hit me,"

"Um, what?"

"You heard me, hit me." Said Soleil.

I laugh. "Are you crazy?"

She shakes her head. "No. I'm sure you won't hit me hard anyway,"

"How can you trust me not to?"

She smiles. "I just do,"

I still couldn't believe this girl would ask me to hit her. What should I do now? Firstly, she's a girl and I don't hit girls. Boys don't hit girls. Second, after everything that's happened, I'm pretty sure we've become friends. Surely, you wouldn't ask a stranger to just hit you like that. I would never hit a friend, unless our lives depend on it. And lastly, who on Earth hits a girl he's crushing on? I mentally slap myself.

I put my hand near her face as I breathe out hard. "Don't blame me if it stings,"

Soleil snorts. "Shouldn't I be the one telling you that?"

She closes her eyes, calmly readying herself for the blow. I bit my lip and braced myself.

I can't do it.

"Gah, can't I just pinch you instead?" Soleil slumps and rolls her eyes.

"Fine, whatever! Just hurt me in any way you can." She says whilst giving me her arm.

I take one look at her arm in my lap and inhale. I hope this works. I push my nails into her skin and bring them together slowly, though forcefully.

"Ow!" she pulls her arm back, rubbing the part where I'd pinched it. Guilt courses through me as I see the skin's turned red. "You didn't do it properly," says Soleil with a bitter laugh.

"How'd you feel? I mean, were you nervous? Excited?" I ask.

"Nothing, really. I trusted you wouldn't hurt me that much,"

I smile in satisfaction. "It goes with your emotions, I think."

"I don't get it." Says Soleil.

I decide to show her instead. I wasn't going to really hit her, just scare her a little and give her a mild slap. Like I said before, I don't hit girls. Besides, even if I do, I'm sure I still wouldn't hit her.

"I'm sorry if this will hurt, but it's essential for the achievement of our knowledge of your peculiarity. And I'm warning you, okay? This might sting a bit," I say, trying to convince her.

Her eyes widen. "Don't hit me very hard!"

I pretend to click my tongue. "I'll try,"

Soleil's mouth drops open and she gulps, but determined to find out more about herself all the same. From the looks of her face, it seems that I have done the trick. As fast as I could, I bring my hand to hit her on the cheek. She doesn't react.

Instead, I feel as though she slapped me first before I did. I didn't even get to see my hand touch her face, as I feel this sharp, stingy pain on my cheek. I gasp and try to rub the throbbing off. Soleil looks at me concernedly, though her mouth is wide open, taking in what happened.

I'm sure she's very excited about her peculiarity as well. So instead I smile.

"That really happened?" she asks.

I laugh. "Yes, yes it did. Ah birds, I'm starting to wish I just didn't hit you." Apparently, I hit Soleil harder than I thought.

She chuckles as well, taking my hand off my cheek. "Well, if you didn't, then we wouldn't know about this, right? Come on, let's get something for your cheek inside, we're gonna have to discuss about this all night long,"

"Gladly," I smile.

Author's Note: Thank you thank you for reading guys! Please don't forget to Follow, Favorite and Review! ^_^

Lord Voldy: Are you sure those are the angels singing or is it you? I don't know man, it's raining pretty hard here. :/ (ILY BRO T.T)