Some Strange Type of Peculiar Love

Souls

Hugh's POV

I heard the brothers scream and I woke up to Bronwyn choking the clown.
"We will not join your army!" She yelled.
"F-fine b-but you n-need to s-see this." He choked out.
"I wouldn't follow you off a sinking ship!"Melina was comforting the trembling brothers, who were whimpering and making small clicks with their tongues.
"Strong ones only." He looked at Olive and she crossed her arms and glared.
"Show me."
"Suit yourself."
The clown took us through a long corridor into a room that smelled of sweat and anxiety.
"These are the reasons we fight." He gestured towards 3 people laying in cots with only one nurse scurrying around them. There were two women and one man. One of the women was groaning and pulling the sheets off of her bed and around her face. The other woman was staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. The man was whimpering and crying.
"What's wrong with them?" Asked Jake.
The nurse ignored me and talked to the clown.
"Can I get a coffee?" The clown nodded and the folding man scurried out hot on his heels.
"Are they any better?"
"No, I just keep them sedated otherwise all they do is bawl."
"How did they get here?" I asked.
"Miss Wren brought them."
"Were they injured in the raid?"
The nurse shook her head and sighed.
"They were tortured, forced to forget their peculiarities."
"How did you find them."
"Like I said, Miss Wren did. But we found their old records, they were kidnapped peculiars. Ling presumed dead."
"I don't care how much I'd be tortured, I'd never forget how to be peculiar." Millard said.
The folding man came back in with a steaming cup of coffee.
"Thank you Sergei." Ah, the folding man is Sergei.
"Sugar?"
She shook her head.
"I barley taste it anymore anyways." Her eyes were tired and pleading.
"Can I examine them?" Asked Millard.
The nurse shrugged.
"Knock yourself out."
Millard walked over to the man.
"That's Benteret, he's supposed to be speak 1,000 languages, but he only ever says one word.
"Call, call,"
"This one," she points to the girl staring at the ceiling, "she's supposed to be able to fly, but I've never seen her get an inch off this bed."
Millard walked around the beds and stood next to the girl who's tangling the bed sheets.
"And she's supposed to be invisible, but she's clear as day." I heard Millard gasp.
"Can I touch them at all?"
"You have some nerve to prey—"
"No, like a medical examination."
"Whatever, I need you use the loo anyways."
She got up from her swivel chair and nudged Emma's shoulder on the way out.
"Sorry."
Millard pulled down the sheet and looked at the long 4 inch scars all across the supposed flying girl's body.
"I don't think they were tortured."
"What they hell do you call it then?" Simren was annoyed and her snake reflected her attitude.
"Look at how methodical the scars are on her. Hugh, check the others too." I walked over there and lifted the mans sheet down. He was wearing a white tank top and a pair of light blue flannel boxers.
"Check his inner thigh."
I groaned and spread his legs.
"No scar."
"What about his heel?"
I took off his right sock, nothing.
"Check the other one."
I look off the left sock and stared at a 4 inch long scar on his heel.
"Yeah, there's one here."
"What are you getting at Millard?" Emma was leaning on the doorframe. Jake looked at her with longing.
"Do you guys remember that saying about a peculiars foot?"
"A peculiars sole is the door to his soul." Olive recited.
"Precisely."
"But that's just an old wives tale." Enoch's arms were crossed and looked tense.
Jake laughed. "That's what I thought about you guys."
"Nevertheless, this seems to be the one scar the two have. Emma, check the third."
"Wait—" Sergei was cut off as Emma lightly touched the girl. Suddenly she stopped wrestling with the sheets and started screaming.
"You can't have it! You can't have it!" She screamed. The nurse shoved Enoch forward into Simren and her snake in an attempt to help the poor girl.
"Get the hell out! There are sick people in here!" She tried to yank Emma away but instead swatted the smoke from her shirt. There was a black handprint in her white nursing uniform. Emma took the girl's, who was still screaming, socks off. She had a four inch scar on her heel as well.
"Well I'll be damned." The clown said.
The nurse flung Emma into the wall and went to soothe the poor girl, who was now just whimpering.
"GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!" She boomed.
We left the room as quickly as we could, but I could still hear her talking.
"You can't have it, you can't have it."

"I'll make lunch."
"I can help."
Enoch and Simren walked down the corridor towards the kitchen seemingly forgetting their mutual hate for each other.
"So what now?" Horace asked.
"Now we fight."
"I already told you, we are not fighting." Bronwyn gritted her teeth and stared into his soul. He stepped back and gulped, probably not wanting to be choked again.
"Let's eat, maybe after lunch Miss Peregrine will be ok." Jake suggested. We nodded and trudged into the kitchen. A cauldron of  soup was brewing over the burner.
"We need meat!"
"I'm a vegetarian!"
Simren and Enoch were arguing over what to add to their soup.
"It's called chicken noodle soup for a reason!"
"Well I call it noodle soup."
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" The snake hissed and lunged and Enoch. He screamed and ran backwards towards Horace. "Quit it! Simren, you can have your soup now along with anyone else who doesn't want meat. Then we'll add it in." Emma always seemed to know what to do, she was like a older sister to me, granted I was 6 months older.

Lunch went fine. I had two bowls of soup and 3 slices of bread, I almost needed to unbutton my parts. Simren let her snake slide onto the floor and put a whole dead chicken on the ground, bones and all.
"Ewwww!" Olive giggled as he dislocated his jaw to eat the corpse. I turned and looked away before I lost all my food. Everyone was asking weird gross questions for Simren about her snake while she laughed when Althea came bouncing into the room.
"Hurry, it's happening!"
"What is?"
"The changing!"
We all ditched our need nots and ran behind Althea. Miss Wren had a large scratch petrifying her face. She was holding Miss Peregrine down by her wings and chanting. All the sudden Miss Peregrine stopped fighting.
"You killed her!" Horace cried.
"Hush!" Miss Wren shouted. She let go of Miss Peregrine and she hobbled behind a changing screen. I saw a shadow of a human appear, but something was off.
"No! It can't be!" Miss Wren clutched her chest and looked as if she might faint. A man stepped out —completely naked— and introduced himself.
"Hello, I'm Caul."

11/13/21