The Thirteenth
Part 21
"Where is Mr. Portman?" Miss Peregrine raised her eyebrow looking at Emma, who suddenly averted her gaze.
"He… He went somewhere with Enoch," the blonde girl lied.
"And where exactly did they go with Enoch?" insisted the ymbryne the sixth sense telling her that something wrong might have been happening right now as it usually was when her children misbehaved.
"They didn't tell me," said Emma quite sure of the place where the two boys headed.
"Fine, Miss Bloom. If they went to see how Eva is doing, then let God help them," told the ymbryne and briskly went away.
The teens were standing near the door to the vault room where Eva was imprisoned.
"Do you see her? What is she doing?" asked Enoch in a whisper.
"I don't know. I can't tell exactly. She's touching walls with her feelers. Looks disgusting!" He made a wry face. "I think she can't see anything, that's why she tries to feel the objects with those feelers."
At that moment Eva's head turned to the door. In two big jumps she was in front of it as if she saw everything that was around or at least the child got used to the surroundings.
"Enoch, is that you? Please, help me! Please, let me out! Don't leave me here, please! I can't see anything. I'm so scared!" begged the creature who not long ago was not quite a pretty but more human than beasty nine year old girl. If she had eyes, she might have cried. Eva didn't have that possibility, still she could wail in order to convince the two to get her out of the cell.
Enoch didn't hear a thing, though, he saw a sweater, pants and socks approaching the door. He made a step back afraid to be caught flatfooted. Probably too many scary stories told by Miss Peregrine about hollowgasts and some of them read in scientific books written by peculiars made him beware of everything he couldn't see with his own eyes. On the other hand, Jacob heard the words and to his surprise understood them. His ability wasn't just seeing the hollowgasts but also understanding them. It was a miraculous revelation for the teen. The boy had no idea how to communicate, though.
"Why did she come so close to the door?" asked Enoch.
"She's asking to let her out," Jake whispered and quickly understood that Eva's hearing now was much better than of any human being.
"Jake?!" She asked. "Please, open the door. I can't sit here anymore. Please, ask Miss Peregrine to send for a doctor. I can't see anything!" She pleaded.
"OK, Eva. I'm not sure any doctor can help you," he pronounced in English.
"Why?" asked the creature in her own language.
"Because you're a hollowgast," he told the truth.
Now everything was crystal clear. Enormous hunger that Eva couldn't control, even after eating the awful breakfast scattered on the floor when the tray fell down, right now seemed to be normal. She knew, who she was, accepted the idea and saw the goal.
"Please, let me out. I won't do no harm. I can't see anything," she cried.
"I'll tell Miss Peregrine," Jacob turned to leave when two feelers penetrated the slot on the door and curled on teenager's neck pulling him up in the air. As the feeler came from the mouth, the girl didn't speak. She put all her strength to squeeze his neck, to make him open the door. Eva didn't think much that it was really hard to do when somebody was suffocating you. Jake gripped the feeler like a vice hammering with his feet on the door trying to unclasp the feeler with his hands. At the same time Enoch, who saw the other boy suffocating and struggling with something invisible, couldn't come with anything better than sliding the lid of the slot. A howling scream sounded only for Jake's ears. The boy fell half unconscious on the floor coughing when Miss Peregrine entered the scene. Three of them heard something big and heavy banging over the metal door from inside of the room.
"What happened here?" She rushed to Jake, gave him a hand to get up to his feet.
"Eva attacked Jake from behind the door," explained Enoch in a shock.
"She wouldn't have done that if you two were outside with others!" The ymbryne reprimanded. "That's very wise of you for keeping the door closed. Still, both of you are grounded!"
Till the end of the day children exchanged their opinions about Enoch and Jake's adventure. Enoch reminded the others that to accept the girl was the worst idea from the beginning. He emphasized the fact that he was against her from the time Aaron appeared with his niece. Emma also shared his opinion together with Hugh, Millard while Jake, Olive, Horace and Fiona told of so many miracles happened in the loop since Eva became the part of their peculiar squad. The twins were scared and decided to turn her into a stone if the girl somehow escapes the vault prison. Bronwyn also was eager to fight with the newbie if Miss Peregrine was in danger. Little Claire said the ymbryne that she would sacrifice Miss Mary, her favorite doll, and Mr. Bunny, her favorite fluffy toy, if Miss Peregrine could turn Eva into half amphibian half human again. The bird just kissed her little princess and told her to wait until tomorrow.
The woman couldn't sleep all night long tossing and turning in her bed. With the first rays of sun she descended into the vault, carefully opened the lid of the slot to see what the girl was doing. Alma spotted the child on the floor asleep. She could see perfectly well pale face with bruises and clotted blood on Eva's lips. The child jagged her nails trying to scratch her way out. Stain of blood coming from her mouth was on the sweater. Room looked like after a war. Wooden pieces of the chair were scattered on the floor. A ripped-off arm-chair was turned upside down. Pages of the books were thrown about the room. Only the bed and the table remained on their places as they were screwed with bolts to the floor.
Alma put the key into the lock and turned it three times to open the door. Mr. Drummond did a huge mistake when he refused to install a lock or at least a slide bolt inside the room. In this case the ymbryne could have locked the room from the inside to protect her children if Eva was violent again. She crossed the room stepping on the pages of the books and kneeled beside the child. The girl heard it and woke with a start.
"Shhh, it's only me." Very gently she touched girl's face with the gloved hand when Eva started to cry. The child hugged her craving for peace, for somebody to soothe her pain.
"Solly," she pronounced thick of speech. This immediately got Miss Peregrine's attention.
"Look at me, child! Can you open your mouth?"
Girl's tongue was injured and swelled up. She had not so deep but a cut at the left side of it. Enoch must have jerked the lid of the slot too hastily trying to save Jacob from the invisible disaster but now the child was suffering. The ymbryne figured out where the blood on the girl's sweater came from.
"Does it hurt?" A silly question but she needed to know how painful it was to the child.
"Ve-jy," came the answer and more tears streamed down Eva's cheeks.
"My poor girl," she wiped away some tears. "Let's wash your face and hands. I have to see what other injuries you've got."
The bathroom was also a mess. The remnants of the mirror were partially on the floor and partially in the sink. The shower curtain was in the bath together with a bar of soap, a tooth brush and cotton swabs. All of this was powdered with the dentifrice.
"Nice!" The bird sighed looking at the destruction. "Wait until I gather all the mirror glass from the floor and the sink."
The child didn't move anywhere. Eva stood and watched the woman collecting he glass with her gloved fingers and throwing it into the trash bin. She was too stunned with the pain and destruction caused to do anything stupid.
In half of an hour Eva was sitting in the living room where Alma was treating to her wounds.
"Are you hungry?" asked the woman observing her work. She has bandaged both hands, applied some antiseptic to scratches and bruises and applied plaster to some small wounds.
The child answered with a nod as it was extremely painful to get her tongue around the words.
"I can make a painkiller injection in the tongue but it might get stiff," said Miss Peregrine without the least hidden motive.
Eva covered her half open mouth with both hands and looked at the principal in such horror that it confused the ymbryne.
"It the only thing I can do in this situation," she explained trying to calm down the girl.
Eva shook her head from side to side showing her total disagreement with the suggestion.
"Let's prepare something liquid for you not to chew." Alma put on the apron and began cooking while Eva was helping her with some tiny tasks.
Enoch, who was on duty today, entered the kitchen and stopped at the doorway. He stared at Eva who was nonchalantly drinking something from the glass with a straw.
"Why did you let her out? Mr. Drummond said that strange condition might last for 3 days. Today is the third one." He looked interrogatingly at the bird.
"Good morning to you too, Mr. O'Connor! By the way, you injured her tongue badly yesterday. Any apologies for that?" The woman was as strict as usual.
"This monster nearly suffocated Jacob! What should I have done?!" Enoch resented her administrative tone.
"You shouldn't appear in the vault at first place! I warned you about her state. Still, you always know better! Now wake up Mr. Portman and go tidy up Eva's room!" She snapped at already boiling teen, who considered it wiser not to contradict the principal but do as she asked because he saw that Eva couldn't even close her mouth shut because of the tongue damage. He could only imagine where the other bruises came from.
"Di.. I hult Jake?" pronounced the girl chewing half of words.
"He has a great purple mark on his neck. He'll live, you don't need to worry."
"I'm solly. I don' 'membel anythin'." Eva closed her eyes tight because each word was extremely painful.
"Don't talk, go and take a notebook and a pen from your room. You'll need them to talk. I think for a couple of days."
The child nodded, put the empty glass in the dishwasher and left the kitchen. Even though, she didn't feel well and every single part of her sore body hurt, Eva helped the boys with the cleaning. The girl wrote her apologies to Jake, who said that it was his own fault. Then the trio joined the kids at the table.
"Hurray! You're back!" Claire hugged the amphibian girl with all her might the minute Eva came into the room.
"G'monin'," replied the girl returning the hug.
"Are you hurt?" the little one asked worriedly.
Eva took her notebook out of the pocket and wrote something which Claire spelled out.
"I ca-n-t ta-l-k. M-y to-un-g is swol-len."
Miss Peregrine had lessons on reading with Claire three times a week. Still, without much progress as the brain of a five-year old was the brain of a five-year old no matter how much time they spent reading the books.
"Did you bite your tongue? Show me!" Claire gazed at Eva in surprise.
The older girl showed her tongue which again caused pain.
"Yikes! There's a cut on the side. Miss Peregrine has to strap it!"
Everyone in the room laughed.
To be continued…