Timeless (Enoch O Connor x OC)

27: Rats

"Your friends have been here."

"What?!" I demanded, I couldn't believe this hadn't been the first thing she'd told me.

I shoved my chair back and stood up.

"When? Where? Are they still here!" I asked ready to start calling out their names to find them.

"Calm down dear," Miss Chough said, now also standing up, "they aren't here in this house anymore but they entered this loop, they asked for you but I told them I hadn't a clue where you were. Now you can't run off looking for them you know, word has reached me that the wights are looking for you."

"So what?" I asked, any politeness I may have had was gone. I was so close to finding my friends again. "I'm not some kind of secret that needs to be kept hidden, they know about me and they'll look for me so the least I can do is find my friends. Besides I am perfectly capable of fighting off a few wights."

"It's much more than a few dear," began Miss Chough, "several hollows and many wights are gathered right outside this loop. You didn't run into them as you entered from 1940 and not the present day. God knows why they haven't ransacked this place yet but staying out here is much safer than going out into the present for all my ward to age forward or to be met by them."

"They're already here?" I asked, "but that could mean my friends might have run into them and been taken or even killed. I'm going out to look for them whether you want me to or not."

"Very well," said the stern woman, giving in, "at the very least stay for an hour or two to regain your energy, you look disheveled and tired."

Truthfully, I was very tired both physically and emotionally. A few hours couldn't hurt I thought, I would be of no use if I were exhausted.

I nodded finally calming down a little. Miss Chough called in Grace again to bring me to a spare room.

As the two girls lead me through the hallway Grace started talking.

"So those kids who came here were your friends?" she asked.

I nodded.

"They all seemed distraught to find you," she said.

That made me feel a little warm inside, they were looking for me.

"Especially one boy," said Grace raising her eyebrows at me.

My face remained blank but I knew who she spoke of.

Enoch.

"Glad to hear it," I said coolly.

Grace noticed my cold reaction and stopped talking until we reached a door.

"This is your room for now," she said opening the door.

When the door creaked open a large rat scurried out rushing between Grace and I. I shrieked a little and jumped back.

"Oh! Lee!" Grace called, "don't scare our guest like that."

"Lee?" I asked as the mouse came over to us.

"That's right," it squeaked, "the names Lee."

"It can talk?" I gasped.

"It? How rude! I'm just as capable as any lousy human, have some respect," it squeaked angrily. Hearing a rat speak to me in a strong British accent was not of the things I had expected to happen today but then again everything had been so crazy recently.

"Lee's from Miss Wren's menagerie, he came here years back, and now this is his home," Grace told me.

"Ever been?" the rat asked me.

"No, I haven't," I replied.

"Thought so," replied Lee smugly, "they wouldn't like you there anyways referring to them all as it."

"I'm sorry about that," I said apologetically.

The rat humphed and scurried away down the hallway.

Made enemies with a rat, I thought as I walked into the room and shut the door after thanking Grace. The room was just fine.

The bed was fine.

The walls were fine.

The closet was fine.

But none of it was like my room at Miss Peregrines. I missed that house terribly. I thought about how every evening the sun would stream through my window, before it set, casting a lovely golden glow on everything. I also thought about my visits to Enoch's room, how I would cross the creaky floorboard and knock on his door and he'd let me into his macabre bedroom.

After a while, I fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

When I awoke there was food on my nightstand which I scarfed down before getting up again.

I was off to find my friends now.

I stepped out into the hallway.

And then.

Screams.

Screams came up the stairwell from downstairs.

Not again, I thought.

The rat, Lee, ran past me in of alarm.

"Hollows!" it squeaked.

Oh, rats.

Hi everyone! Enjoy this chapter. All the characters will come back very very soon. Please vote if you liked it as this book is drawing to a close!
Edit: it's September 3rd happy loop day!