A/N: Life took a turn for the worst for a while. Personal problems came up and we had to temporarily go off the grid. And then exam week decided to make its appearance, so yeah, sorry for such a long delay? But we're back now. Enjoy!

Chapter 8 – What Was in That Soap! - [Peregrine POV]

Everything was sparkly. Too sparkly.

Enoch glanced around, trying to figure out where he was, and why everything was covered in so much bloody glitter!

All around him, stretching for miles, was grass. But not just any grass. No, the grass here was purple. And sprinkled every few paces were trees with bright yellow bark and deep purple leaves that matched the grass. Tilting his head back to look above him, Enoch saw that the sky was a pale baby pink, and the sun was a blinding lime green.

Before now, Enoch had not realized he was missing most of his senses. But as they were now coming back to him, he became aware that he was in motion.

Feeling that he was riding something, Enoch peered below him and came to the realization that he was riding a horse. But by scrutinizing the creature further, he saw that there was a magnificent gold horn in between the creature's ears.

Enoch finally grasped that he was riding a unicorn.

Now fully alert, he looked around and saw an entire herd of unicorns galloping with the unicorn he was riding along an electric blue path he had not noticed before.

Now watching the unicorn herd warily, Enoch eyed a baby unicorn that was prancing towards him.

Eventually the baby unicorn made it to Enoch's side. It looked up at him and seemed to be suppressing laughter. Then the baby unicorn spoke, startling Enoch as he had not realized that unicorns were capable of speech. "Your horn!" The baby unicorn burst out, snickering.

Enoch found himself very confused by this statement. What did that creature mean about his horn? He didn't have a horn!

Did he?

Enoch shook off his bafflement in favor of staring at the odd scenery around him.

After a time of traveling, Enoch spotted a glittery hot pink pond that they were fast approaching. "Stop!" He shouted on a whim, deciding he just wanted to make sure he didn't have a horn by checking his reflection in the pond's surface.

The unicorn he was riding halted, and Enoch stumbled off him and towards the pond.

The rest of the unicorns also stopped and now stood in a line by the grass's edge, watching him.

Enoch tentatively approached the pond's edge and peered nervously at his reflection.

He gasped when he saw it.

Enoch was, expectedly, a unicorn. A baby unicorn with a glistening pearl body and a bright pink mane that had flowers braided into it. Completing the look was his horn. It was a big, chunky black flashlight protruding from his unicorn forehead.

As he watched in horror, the flashlight switched on, and his head now emitted a beam of weak light.

With one last unicorn neigh, Enoch–

Woke up.

Enoch sat up in a giant fluffy bed which was covered in parchment paper – like an examination table in a doctor's office. He had to suppress an agonized shout at the nightmare he had just endured.

Shaking his head, Enoch peered around at his surroundings. The bed underneath the parchment paper was maybe queen sized with black velvet sheets and a dark red comforter.

All around him, Enoch observed in horror, were stuffed animals. The walls seemed to have hundreds of shelves, each stocked with its own collection of strangely colored, oddly shaped creatures. Even the floor had an entire swimming pool of stuffed animals, except for a small path leading from the bed to the door, stuffed animals already gradually filling it.

Enoch rolled off the bed, trusting the animals to cushion his fall, and, ignoring the path to the door, waded towards a mirror that was in a corner.

Glancing at his reflection, Enoch drew in a sharp breath as he saw he was caked in mud.

That explains the parchment paper, he thought.

Muttering under his breath about his muddy condition, Enoch stumbled to the door, thankful it swung outward and was therefore easy to open.

On the wall opposite the door was a piece of paper with handwriting on it.

It read:

THE BATHROOM IS THIS WAY

PLEASE TAKE A SHOWER AND SCRUB ALL THAT FILTHY MUD OFF YOU.

THANK YOU.

Elwin.

Sighing, Enoch headed down the hallway the sign indicated, trying to ignore how the walls seemed to be made of glittering crystal.

He found himself approaching a half-open door which he realized was the bathroom.

Stepping inside, Enoch groaned when he saw more crystal. Crystal walls, crystal bathtub, crystal shower.

With another sigh, Enoch opened the sliding crystal shower door and turned the crystal knob so that hot water poured rapidly from the crystal showerhead.

Without any more exclamations of sound, Enoch began to strip, grimacing at the layers of mud that coated his clothes.

Enoch stepped into the shower, careful not to slip on the crystal tile that made up the floor.

He went through the motions of taking a shower on autopilot, rinsing so that the water ran brown with mud. When he was in the process of furiously rubbing at his skin, Enoch froze in realization.

What the hell... "WHAT THE HELL!" He shouted. Where am I? Whose shower is this, whose house is this? Who's Elwin?

Enoch stumbled out of the shower in a rush, pulling his black boxers on inside out.

Now in a blind panic, Enoch stumbled out of the bathroom, dripping water, and raced back down the hall, past the room where he woke up, down a stairway, and down another hallway.

Of course, as bound to happen, Enoch slipped, as he was soaking wet. He went flying through an entranceway into a living room where he landed flat on his face in the middle of the room.

With a groan of pain, Enoch got to his feet, struggling not to slip again in the puddle of water that was growing around him.

Looking around, he gasped when he recognized Tam from when he had come to visit Jacob's house.

He gaped at Tam, who seemed to be a bit flustered. As Enoch watched, Tam composed himself and now stared back at him with a perfectly blank face.

"What are you doing here? Why am I here? Where are we? Tell me what you know!" Enoch managed to find the courage to demand of Tam.

"Keep going on like that and you might as well start asking who you are." Tam commented.

Before Enoch could figure out how to respond to that, another, unknown, man appeared. "Well, aren't you two just adorable?"

"Elwin?" Tam gasped, surprise audible in his voice.

"Hi!" Elwin wiggled his fingers at the two shocked boys, giggling.

"Let us go." Tam stomped up to Elwin, getting in his face.

"We? You care about your boyfriend that much already?" Elwin teased.

"I–I," Tam's mouth gaped open and closed like a fish's. "Let me go," He finally stuttered out.

"No." Elwin giggled once again.

Tam clenched his jaw so hard that the sound of his teeth grinding together could be heard.

Enoch, meanwhile, watched this interaction in shocked silence.

Instead of demanding to be let go again, Tam stuck his hands out, palms forward. Something dark shot out of his palms, immediately pinning Elwin to the ceiling.

"The answer is still no!" Elwin sang out, despite the fact that he was being held captive – glued to the ceiling – by a teenage boy.

While Tam was occupied with his task, Enoch started slowly backing toward the hallway he had entered the living room through.

Of course, it didn't take Tam long to notice. Tam spun around to face Enoch with an accusatory glare already plastered on to his face.

Enoch, only slightly fazed, stuck a thumb over his shoulder towards the hallway. "Um... I'm just going to get dressed..."

Tam's eyes widened in realization at the statement. Enoch guessed either in surprise because he didn't realize Enoch was only in his boxers, or because he forgot about Enoch's dress situation.

"Why are you only in your boxers anyway?" Tam abruptly asked, catching Enoch off guard.

"Uh–"

"And why is your hair a different col–"

"What color!" Enoch interrupted Tam.

"Blonde?" Tam answered hesitantly, confused by the panicked urgency in Enoch's voice.

"God dammit!" Enoch shouted. "What was in that soap! Now I have to buy more hair dye, which isn't cheap, I'll have you know."

Enoch glared daggers at Elwin who, for his part, only laughed at both his and Enoch's predicaments.

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Tam looked at Enoch curiously. "Your hair isn't black? You dye it?"

"Yeah," Enoch mumbled, suddenly embarrassed.

"Oh, then I can just hail Dex and have him make you an elix–"

"No, I don't want one of your fancy potions, I want to get out of here and buy more hair dye from the brand I always use." Enoch interrupted Tam once again.

Tam shrugged, turning his attention back to Elwin.

"What are you doing to him, anyway?"

"Nothing that will hurt him." Tam turned back to Enoch to give him a strange look. "Unless I drop him." He glanced at Elwin with a calculating look, as if considering doing just that.

"Let him go!" Enoch demanded indignantly.

"Are you suggesting I let him fall?" Tam raised a curious eyebrow at the other boy.

"No, just let him go," Enoch insisted again, this time more softly.

"Why should I if he refuses to let us go?" Tam thought back to the reason why he had pinned Elwin to the ceiling in the first place.

Enoch eyed Tam, deciding he likes the way Tam thinks.

"You're right," Enoch said slowly. "We should lock him up."

The two boys grinned at each other in agreement.

"I saw some rope in a closet on my way here," Tam offered. "We can maybe lock him in a closet?"

Enoch nodded enthusiastically. "That's perfect!"

Tam was about to leave, but paused to make sure his magic rope wasn't going to falter once he left the room.

"Wait! Tam, you know me, please don't lock me in a closet!" Elwin pleaded.

Tam ignored him and turned and walked down a hallway to the left of the room.

Enoch, with a growing blush in his cheeks, watched Tam as he walked away. He bit his lip and blew out a breath.

"Aww, miss your boo-boo already?" Elwin teased.

"Shut up." Enoch threw a glare at the man still on the ceiling.

Elwin, having a brief lapse of logic, did.

A minute later, Tam reappeared with a bundle of rope in his arms. Enoch hoped there was no remainder of blush on his face. If there was, Tam showed no sign of noticing it.

"Do you know where a big enough closet is? The one I found is too small."

"Uh, I think so, yeah."

"Great, thanks."

Without another word Tam turned to Elwin. With a smirk, his magic rope released the man and he fell, being caught by Tam's magic at the last possible second.

Enoch glanced at Tam in exasperation but otherwise stayed silent.

"Well, lead the way," Tam grinned. "And bring one of those chairs while you're at it." Tam motioned vaguely in the direction of the crystal kitchen table.

After grabbing a chair, Enoch took the lead and led Tam down a hallway and then up a flight of stairs, Tam having already bound Elwin with his magic ropes so that he was trailing behind them.

"Oh! Here it is!" Enoch exclaimed as they almost walked past the closet door.

Tam, without any hesitation, opened the door, revealing an empty room with, for some unknown reason, faux fur covered walls in the brightest pink you could imagine.

Enoch noticed Tam make a look of distaste at the closet.

He went ahead and placed the chair in the center of the small, obscene closet space. Once that was done, Tam used his magic ropes to tie Elwin to the chair with the normal ropes.

Tam shot a smirk at Elwin and then shut the door. Turning to Enoch, Tam spoke. "Now we just need to figure out how to get out of here."

The two boys once again grinned at each other, both knowing they had the perfect companion to do just that.

A/N: This is a warning, updates are going to slow for the summer because MC's going on vacation, and I'm not going to write without her. She is my co-author, after all. Other than that, I hope you all have an amazing summer, as that is right around the corner, and I will see you at our next update!