The Thirteenth

Part 14

Children went to sleep. Miss Peregrine was sitting outside on the swings made by Mr. Wallace. She enjoyed the murmur of the rain on the roof of the alcove. The day was peaceful and happy, even if Alma was grumpy because of Claire's misbehavior, in the end she was proud of her smallest charge. Especially, when everyone gathered in the living room to watch Horace's dream, which was very funny this time. Claire shared a chocolate given to her by the ymbryne with Eva. The other girl refused to take it, so instead of eating the sweet, Claire gave it to Bronwyn, who also liked chocolates. That little event amused Alma a bit. At last her children accepted the newcomer, whom she began to like more and more, no matter what Aaron said about Eva.

"You know, it has been proven that smoking can lead to cancer," said Mr. Drummond sitting next to the ymbryne on the swings. She was smoking her pipe as usual.

"I've been living one and the same day over and over again for more than 75 years. May I have at least something which is mine and only," she retorted looking somewhere far away but not at him.

"I don't want these children to remain without their ymbryne," he said rocking on the swings.

"If I had anything like cancer, your niece would have already tried to treat the disease. The same as she has done to Claire today."

"By the way, you chose a nice name for her. How do you feel about it?" Aaron understood that it was a small chance for Satan to take out a piece of paper thrown by Alma in the sack. Nevertheless, it happened.

"How can you be so sure it was I who named her?" She asked suspiciously trying to see his face in the dim light of the pipe.

"I will never mix up your uneven birdy scribble with any other handwriting. Even the twins write much better." He teased her.

"You've read the names?!"

"Why not? Karen collected them. I didn't take part in the game, but I wanted to see what other crazy things your kids can come up with. For instance, Enoch wrote "Medusa". You know the one from the Greek mythology. She turned people into a stone. I can't blame him, Satan's appearance can make any sober person go insane." He chuckled, imagining Eva in his mind.

"Her name is Eva."

"An ancestress of human kind and the first sinner. A very appealing name for a girl, I guess. Quite a thoughtful choice, as she is both a devil and an angel at the same time with her healing power and killing abilities when she forgets who she is for a couple of days." The man thought aloud.

"'Eva' means 'a living one'. My brother became a wight. Wights can't have children but she's an exception. Besides, Catherine also gave her a name from the Bible, why shouldn't I?" The ymbryne wanted to prove she was right.

"Eva is a beautiful name. How do you feel after naming a child? It was an unforgettable moment in my life when Karen was born. I wanted to name her Siobhan but Andrea disagreed. That's why, she's Karen." He confessed smiling while reminiscing the day his daughter was born.

"This girl is unique like any of my children. I love all of them the same. She deserved a better name than that curse," concluded Alma blowing a cloud of smoke into the night.

"Where did you find Claire?"

"Why do you ask?"

"While healing Eva sees the essence of the problem, not just the pain, that could be the consequence but every bad thing that might have caused this pain. So, what happened to this jolly happy chocolate thief."

"It was the end of November. Emma, Victor, Bronwyn, Millard and Enoch have already been living with me for some years. I flew to Ireland as Mrs. Stork was ill and I had to recharge her loop because she was unable to do that. I was flying above a village in the north where I saw a woman beating a toddler in the yard. The child barely had any clothes on her and it began snowing. She was attenuated by hunger the same as Eva now." Miss Peregrine inhaled some more smoke as if this memory was too painful to remember.

"Eva hadn't been starving. Hollows took all her energy away when she healed them. It's a curse because she can't control it. The moment somebody touches her, Eva shares her energy with a person or a creature. The same she can't control her behavior every 13th day of the month which could last for some days."

"Yes, I remember, but Claire looked like a skeleton like Eva only with some symptoms of rickets. She had very thin limbs but a big belly. Her mother swore hard and slapped her calling Claire a bastard, an abomination, a thug, a misfit and many other 'pretty nick names' that came into her drunk head. I jumped at the woman and scared her to death trying to rip away her eyes. What else could I have done in a form of a bird?" She chuckled at the memories of a crying woman and her bloody face. "That's when I noticed Claire's back mouth coughing. I flew back to fulfill my duties with only one hope that this little girl would be able to survive one more night. I returned to my loop, recharged it and went out again. It took me three days to arrange everything. I needed to evaluate time and distance, find a place to leave necessary clothes for me and Claire. I've booked the fastest boat to bring her home in time until the closure of the loop or I would have lost other children. In these three days I flew through the open window of the old house where Claire was locked in and brought her food."

"You saved her, Alma. I'm very proud of you. Catherine did the same for you but your brother took away her soul. She became a shell of herself after he tortured her. I'll be grateful, if you tell Eva Claire's story. She has to know that there could be also a happy end."

"Yeah, that's why you are building a cell for her?" She asked and sighed too worried about her new charge.

"I want to protect all of you from her alter ego. But in general, I understand why Claire's story surprised Eva so much. Her life was not much better than your little girl's."

"Tell me Catherine sent her to an asylum?"

"I don't know. Kate has disappeared for three years. We had a big argument because of her educational methods. She took Satan. I mean Eva and ran away. I thought I've lost both of them. A few months ago I received a message from her, where she asked me to take care of Eva. Later, I found out that Kate was dead as she had predicted in the video I received. I won't forgive myself, if I lose someone else from my family."

"Yes, of course. Still, I wish Catherine had been with her daughter right now." Alma stood up from the swings and went back to the house.

In the morning Eva was lying in bed trying not to wake up the woman.

"Why don't you sleep? It's half past five!" A hoarse voice of the ymbryne sounded in the room.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to sleep anymore," the child apologized.

"What were you thinking about?" asked Miss Peregrine glaring at the girl who was lying on her back staring at the ceiling with her black hollow eyes.

"Nothing," she responded.

"Liar. You have been lying without a stir for almost 10 minutes. Definitely, there is something in your mind."

"May I go swimming today?"

"Eva, you're barely walking. How far can you swim in this condition?"

"Is it a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

"Guess."

"My mom would say 'do as you wish'. It meant that I'm responsible for myself. Probably, the place we were in was safe. If she locked me in the room or shouted at me, that was square 'no'," explained the child not moving her eyes from the ceiling.

"We may go after breakfast," said the ymbryne as a matter of fact. "What did you see yesterday, when you healed Claire?" The question came unexpected, so Eva turned to look the woman in the eyes.

"I can't say I see that. I have the same feeling of the patient's pain, so to say."

"Yesterday you felt more than stomach ache caused by overeating," Miss Peregrine sounded too serious in order to deflect.

"Claire was a helpless toddler starving and very ill. She was coughing and shivering while her mother beat the tar out of her. The house was too cold and her legs and arms froze. It was too painful. She cried and cried for hours until falling asleep on the floor because she couldn't get outside. The door was closed but all the windows were open. My mother had never tortured me like that." The girl confessed. "Who brought her here?"

"I did," told Miss Peregrine with a deep sigh. "Her mother hadn't been at home when I came. I left her a note. I found Claire on the floor in the room. She had fever and was delirious. The doctor said it was pneumonia together with measles. Poor Emma also was suffering from measles after that. Claire spent one month in bed, weeping, scratching rash and whining. After that I had to close the kitchen and the fridge for three months because she ate everything she saw. She became really hysterical if someone touched her food or prevented her from eating all the fruits and vegetables in the garden. One year later Claire started pronouncing some words because I took her and Bronwyn out of the loop from time to time for them to grow up a little as it was too hard to have two toddlers in the house. When she understood that nobody's going to do her any harm, her character changed a bit. Now I have a small five year old with pretty blonde locks and a charming smile on both of her mouths."

"Did her mother look for her?" asked the girl.

"No, never. I visited her from time to time until her death. She gave birth to four more children." Miss Peregrine missed the fact that all of them were from different fathers. "She didn't treat them well either but at least she didn't hide them away like Claire. People from the village helped those kids. Unfortunately, two of them died after bombing."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's life. You saw a bomb that every single day drops on the roof of our house. The war is ugly. It took millions of lives. But I'll make sure all my children are safe and happy." She smiled at the girl. "Promise me one thing, Eva."

"What?"

"You will never touch me."

"Why?"

"I don't want you to feel my pain."

"No, you are afraid not of that. You are afraid that I see who caused it. I already know it was my father."

"Promise that you will never ever touch me," repeated Miss Peregrine seriously.

"I can't promise that. Karen says, you shouldn't promise what you are not able to do."

"Why can't you promise that?"

"I'm living in the same house with you, silly. How may I not touch you by an accident? For instance, you can ask me to pass a salt-cellar or I can brush my hand against yours when walking through a doorway," She explained to the woman in detail like to a three year old.

"Fine, I will always wear gloves then," stated Miss Peregrine glaring at the child.

"Really? How can they help you?" With these words Eva playfully took her hand out of the blanket to touch Miss Peregrine's face. The woman jumped out from the bed while the girl was giggling.

To be continued…

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