In Bronwyn's room I get ready to go to sleep. I decide to sleep in my underwear and my shirt. She said she was okay with it.
When I want to throw my pants on the back of my bed I feel the clay figure in the pocket. I almost forgot, I need to give it back. I take it out of the pocket and stare at it. The features of the little man are surprisingly detailed. In his chest is a gap where... I don't want to think about it. I put my pants on again and leave the sleeping Bronwyn in the room.
I get down to the rest room where I hope to find Enoch. My bare feet ruffle on the uneven stairs. When I enter the room I automatically scan it and I count five children. Hugh and Fiona, together on a small couch with a bee twirling around their heads. On the floor is Millard reading a book that's even old for this time. Emma is writing in an armchair in the corner of the room, giving me dirty looks and then there is Horace. I go sit next to him, interrupting whatever he's doing.
"Hey, do you know where Enoch is?" His expression is changing between surprise and disbelieve. Oh yeah, this maybe sounds weird. "Miss Peregrine said I should give him his clay doll back." I justify myself. The disbelief doesn't fully leave his face, but a smile creeps up anyway. "He's probably in the basement." He points back at the staircase I came from. I give him a quick hug with Emma's judging eyes on me and get the heck out of there.
The floor cracks under my feet and I wish I wouldn't make so much noise, especially when Emma's glaring at me. I feel an outcast with her in the room. I take a deep breath before I go down to the basement. The darkness and the smell are awful the further down I go. What is Enoch doing here? I shut my mind before I can think of too horrible things like slaughtering animals or... there I did it. I thought about it.
I ignore the smell and knock on the only door downstairs. Somewhere deep inside myself I hope no one will open.
"Come in." I hear the deep voice of Enoch. I need to take a breath before I have the guts to enter the basement. I close the door behind me but I stay with my back pressed against the wood. There's no animal slaughter going on but it's still the creepiest room I've ever been. The walls are filled with shelves with jars on them with all organs, especially hearts, in some liquid. In the middle is a table with bloodstains everywhere on it and dolls siting on the edges. They stare at me with their glass eyes what gives me shivers. Enoch sits at the table, his hands covered in blood. His deep brown eyes stare at me like they did at dinner. His grumpy expression isn't changed since the last time I saw him.
"What brings you here?" I remark a London accent in his rough voice. I don't know if it makes me more comfortable or just makes the situation creepier.
"I found your doll." I'm not able to say more. A shiver goes down my spine again but now I notice it's from the cold and not all the hearts swimming in jars around me. I don't want to imagine how it would smell here if the sun warms up the flesh. All this thoughts rush through my mind in less than a second while I'm ripping my back of the door. I get the clay figure out of my pocket and lay it carefully on the table with blood. Enoch picks it up to place it next to another doll from clay. I make myself scan the room, however it's still horrible. The dolls are the hardest to remember, all the different features and how they're placed.
"What are you still doing here?" Enoch is clearly annoyed with me. I look back in his staring eyes without hesitation this time. "I'm waiting for a 'thank you'." I still try to ignore the smell of the hearts but now it's mixing with the metallic smell of blood. I have troubles keeping a straight face.
"So you're planning on waiting here for eternity?" His little smirk annoys me. I place my hand on the free corner of the table, leaning on it so I can stand more comfortable if I'm going to stay the whole night. After a few minutes waiting Enoch starts to talk again. I almost hope he's going to thank me but it's a wish that will never come true.
"If you're staying anyway, I can show you my peculiarity this time. It's just not as beautiful as a night sky in the dining room." He says sarcastically. I know he's trying to scare me away by raising his puppets. I straighten my back and try to look like I don't care.
"Can you take three little jars from over there?" He points at something behind me but I don't even take the effort to look. "Okay, I understand. I will do it myself."
He stands up from his chair. I expect the chair to twirl around, but then I remember this is not the 21 century. There are no chairs that can turn around here. I hear glass ticking against glass behind my back. Enoch walks back into my view with three jars with three little hearts in them. He sits down and begins working with three dolls from a rich blue fabric.
I follow every move of his fingers until he opens the jars. I can't stand to see this, but I keep looking. It's a kind of weird fascination inside of me. He takes a heart in between his fingers and with his touch it begins to beat again. I swallow unrecognizable. Enoch put it in one of the dolls and the others go in the other dolls their chest. I hold my breath while he whispers something to them. They come to life before my eyes and it surprisingly doesn't disturb me that much.
The dolls shuffle to each other and start to slap each other with their little doll arms. They fall sometimes but keep battling on the table. They come dangerously close to where I stand. There arms flying in the air. One falls from the table next to my feet. I pick it up from the ground and put it back on the table to fight with its mates again. When I look up I see Enoch staring.
"This is pretty cool but isn't it getting boring doing the same every night?" He grins mischievously at me. "How do you think I got all this hearts?" The thought of animal slaughter comes back in my mind. I hope he's joking. I fight back my rational feeling to run and watch the dolls slap each other in the face. They can't do much with their soft arms of fabric. My silence tells him enough and his smirk only gets wider.
I throw one last glance on him while I walk back to the stairs but not without taking the clay figure first. He doesn't seem to notice. A weight falls of my heart while I sprint up the stairs, half tripping half jumping. I get to my room directly with the snores of Bronwyn singing me to sleep. Like I decided before I'm just sleeping in my shirt and underwear. I wrap myself up in the blankets and fall asleep almost directly.
I feel a tap on my shoulder. I can almost see my little brother, one of the twins, bending over me, whispering breakfast is ready. I can almost smell the pancakes mom always makes on Saturday morning. The only thing I smell is a vague metallic smell that's still on my shirt from yesterday. What I see is also far from my little brother. The girl with short brown curls where I share this room with bends over me. I groan sleepily but get up anyway.
"Breakfast is in ten minutes, I will leave you alone to change clothes. You can use something from me, it's in the closet." She leaves without giving me the chance to thank her. I just put my pants on again, not wanting to make Bronwyn's clothes dirty. I find the bathroom, that's actually just to the left of our room, after a few minutes of searching. I hope that Millard isn't in.
I undo my French braid that I forgot to unfold yesterday and brush my hair with an antique hairbrush I found. Probably it isn't antique this moment but I'm still not used to think in 1940s style. I just clip a blonde lock to the back of my head and get off to breakfast.
When I'm in the dining room I hear miss Peregrine waking other peculiars upstairs. To my relief Millard is already at the table and he's wearing clothes. Three other places are taken already. The left side of Miss Peregrine is no one else than Claire with next to her Millard. Two places further sits Horace, who probably got here half an hour before we actually have to be here. And last but not least - maybe he's the least but I try not to be rude- Enoch at the other end of the table, away from all the rest.
I plop down next to him, what seems to annoy him. "I still don't hear you say it." He knows I'm fishing for a thank you. "Probably because I don't say anything, or you're deaf. Or both." I roll my eyes. From the other side of the table, straight ahead of me, Horace is smiling mysteriously. When he sees me looking he tries to put on a serious face, where he fails at.
"You don't get your doll back if you don't say it." I show Enoch the thing that's still in my pocket but he doesn't seem affected. "That's my best one." I put it back in my pocket.
"Well, you shouldn't throw your 'best one' around in the house." His eyes narrow and I know I pissed him off. "Or you shouldn't steal it from my desk."
"You get it back, I promise. After you finally thank me."
"Thanking for something that didn't happen yet? That's not how society works."
"Living the same day over and over again is also not how society works." I throw back.
"If you don't like it you could always just go away!" I really want to yell at Enoch, I want to rebuild his face. Why can't he just simply say thank me? I control myself when Bronwyn comes to join us with Olive holding her hand. They sit at the same place as the day before because there's only one chair with a belt for Olive.
Horace is smiling mysteriously at me again but this time he doesn't hide it. "What's the matter, you look like you just found out the Germans are going to lose the war." Everyone at the table is staring at me, again. I hate when this happens.
"Are they really going to lose?" Olive asks hopefully. Oh god, they didn't know. I want to burry my face in my hands and never show myself again, like an ostrich. Olive and Claire are very excited about it and on the others faces I can read some satisfaction.
"I'm sorry, I didn't have to say that." I stand up and excuse myself before I run upstairs. This is such a big mistake. Rule one, I hear my mother still saying, don't mention the future, ever. I almost bump into Miss Peregrine. "I'm really sorry, miss." I mumble while I pass her to my room. She tilts her head a little bit and I know that she's confused even if she doesn't show. How could I be this stupid, I already messed up everything in less than a day?
A/N: Crappy end, I know. I just had to end it because I'm out of inspiration for this chapter. See you in the next one. I hope.