Chapter 6 – Speak of the Devil - [Peregrine POV]

Enoch, since the three newcomers had left, had been sulking in his broom closet, replaying yesterday's events over and over in his head. He kept telling himself it was so he could hate on Fitz, but deep down he knew it was because of the boy with the dark hair and silvery blue eyes. Tam. He had seen the news enough times to know that nowadays it was fine to have these feelings, but having friends from the 1940's, they might not feel the same.

"ENOCH!" Claire screeched, her back mouth wailing with her front mouth. She started banging on his closet door in rapid succession, to the point Enoch worried the door would give.

Speak of the devil, Enoch thought. Quickly scrambling to stand up in the cramped space, he banged his head on the shelf above him.

Claire's assault on the door didn't stop.

Clutching his head, Enoch grasped for the doorknob and swung the door open. Unfortunately, Claire jumped out of the way and wasn't hit.

"What do you want?" Enoch grumbled, clearly in one of his moods.

"You made Miss P run away!" Claire shrieked.

"What? She left?"

"Yes! And it's all your fault!"

"She's probably off doing some bloody ymbryne stuff." Enoch shrugged, unconcerned.

"No!" Claire insisted. "You made her run away!"

Enoch took a much-needed breath of air. "Claire - I didn't even know the bird left until just now, how could I be the reason? She would have yelled at me or something before 'running away.'"

Claire whipped her head back and forth in a violent no gesture. She opened her mouth and started once again. "SHE LEFT BECAUSE OF–"

Bronwyn appeared and near tackled Claire as she wrapped one arm around Claire's middle and covered Claire's mouth with her other hand. She shot Enoch and apologetic look for Claire's behavior.

Before Bronwyn had the chance to pull Claire into the other room, Claire's second mouth opened wide and then chomped down on Bronwyn's upper arm, causing her to let out a pained gasp and effectively lose her grip on Claire.

Claire of course ran for the living room, the mouth on the back of her head still opening and closing like Bronwyn's arm was still there.

Bronwyn, cradling her arm, made to follow her, but stopped when a knock sounded on the door.

Emma yelled from the living room, "I got it!"

Seeing that the matter of the door had been decided, Bronwyn continued to the living room and started chasing Claire, who was running circles around the coffee table. Her back mouth still snapping open and closed.

Enoch headed down the hallway to the front door, curious as to who it could be. He saw Emma in the process of opening the door.

As soon as the door opened just wide enough to see who it was, Enoch immediately turned tail and stomped back to the living room, glaring daggers at Claire once she was in his view.

"See? Miss Peregrine did not run away, she's right there!" Enoch scoffed, hooking a thumb back the way he came.

Claire screeched in excitement, running as fast as her short legs could carry her down the hallway to the bird.

As soon as Claire's body made contact with Miss Peregrine's she wailed, "I thought you were never coming back!" Miss Peregrine patted he back soothingly before shooing her off to go tell the others, who were no doubt congregated in Jacob's living room.

In the living room, Enoch rolled his eyes at Claire's words and flopped on the couch in between Bronwyn, who no longer had a Claire to chase, and a floating newsboy hat.

Miss Peregrine appeared at the entryway to the living room, Emma hovering behind her. Her wards jumped to greet her.

Well, most of them. Enoch remained on the couch, and Bronwyn was trying to help Olive down from the ceiling fan. The rope that was tied around her waist was now tangled around the ceiling fan's blades.

Miss Peregrine tolerated the attention for exactly thirty seconds – she was watching her pocket watch – before encouraging everyone to let her sit down and explain herself.

Once settled, Miss Peregrine started, "It seems as though I may have worried some of you while I was gone, and for that I apologize. However, there was no need to worry because I was simply trying to retrieve the gelato that one of our guests stole from us."

From there Miss Peregrine explained most of the events that happened, from following Sophie and her friends to their 'hotel room' to confront them. She of course left out a few minor details such as the breakup and the fact that they are elves.

When she finished, she asked, "Any questions?"

Unsurprisingly, everyone had some.

Miss Peregrine started with Claire because she was the youngest.

"Did you get the gelato back?" She asked hopefully.

Sighing, Miss Peregrine responded, "I unfortunately did not because it melted before anyone could eat it."

Claire pouted and turned a glare on Enoch, who in a split second's decision turned a question on Miss Peregrine. "Miss P, that's not my fault now, is it? Because some people," he turned an accusing eye on Claire, "seem to think it is."

"In this situation I believe it is not your fault; however, you shouldn't have taken the gelato from Sophie and her friends in the first place."

Enoch smirked and chose not to answer this.

Miss Peregrine called on Olive, who had been holding her hand up eagerly during the duration of the previous conversation.

"Will we ever see them again?" Olive asked expectantly.

Miss Peregrine smiled, satisfying Olive with the knowledge that, yes, they were more than likely to see Sophie and her friends again.

And so this is how the questioning went. None of her wards had yet asked anything particularly important or difficult, and so their questions were easy to answer.

Until it was Millard's turn. Of course he, being the most observant of the group, had to ask the most complicated question.

"So why did you really follow them? We all know it's not because Fitz stole some gelato. Is it because they're not human?"

Miss Peregrine cleared her throat and smoothed her skirt, stalling. She didn't quite know how to answer his question.

"Well–"

Miss Peregrine was interrupted by a polite knock on the entry door. This was probably the first and only time she would ever be thankful to be interrupted.

Relieved that she didn't have to answer Millard's question, the bird fled the living room to answer the door.

As Miss Peregrine walked down the hallway, before she could open the door, another, much more aggressive knock sounded. She would never admit that the aggression of this second knock frightened her.

With her heart beating rapidly, Miss Peregrine hurried to unlock and open the door. She didn't want to anger her visitors any more.

Once the door was fully open, Miss Peregrine's mouth fell open in a wide-mouthed gape.

Olive, who was hidden at the end of the hallway wanting to see who it was, let out a squeal when she finally saw. She then took off at a sprint and launched herself at no other than Sophie Foster.

Sophie giggled at Olive, as the little girl now had her arms wrapped around Sophie's waist, her face buried in Sophie's stomach.

Slightly behind Sophie stood Tam, looking very awkward shuffling his feet with a plastic bag hanging from his fingers. At the bottom of the bag was a suspicious gelato container shaped bulge.

Finally, next to Tam, was a skinny boy of average height with styled dirty blonde hair. He had his hands on his hips and was staring squinty eyed at Miss Peregrine, scrutinizing her.

Miss Peregrine recognized him from her brief time at Sophie's house in the Lost Cities.

Then this new boy's eyes got a glint as he grinned and opened his mouth. "Well, hullo, woman I'm going to pretend I've never met."