Clay and Blood | Enoch O'Connor

Chapter 2

Jake walked back into the Children's home, and the first thing that he did was pick up the tattered old photograph he saw the previous day. He sat on one of the stairs as he slowly analyzed all of the children. He immediately recognized Enoch due to the fact that his grandpa always described him as the guy with a frown permanently printed on his face. And indeed he looked somewhat mad in this picture. Following to his right which was also the end of the back row he spotted a beautiful girl dressed in pure white with dark hair, he recognized her immediately as Dalila, she had an almost imperceptible smile as she looked right back at the camera. On Enoch's other side stood Victor who was holding his suspenders proudly as he grinned, next to him you could find a floating hat and cardigan which he assumed for it to be Millard who was also standing next to Emma. He was surprised he could recognize everyone so easily although years and years passed from the last time he saw those photographs.
He continued to stare at the framed photograph until he heard a noise coming from the glass mural in the other room. He cautiously got up and made his way towards the noise until he saw her
"Abe?" She asked. Jake began panicking and accidentally fell on a bunch of bricks, hitting his head and falling unconscious.

"Bronwyn, be careful, he already hurt his head pretty badly"
"Don't worry Emma, he'll be fine"
"I'll believe it when I'll see it, Dalila" Emma said as she held both of the twins hands. Dalila shook her head with a knowing smile "Okay Bronwyn, you can let go" she said as she placed a hand on Millard's shoulder making sure he was paying attention. Bronwyn dropped Jake to the floor and with a grunt he stood back up.
He looked confused for a moment feeling lost until his gaze fell on the 7 people in front of him.
"Wait I-...I know you....you're Emma...the twins, and...and you're Millard and Bronwyn...and you are Olive...oh and you are Dalila" he said as he looked at them in awe.
"I see you know who we are" Dalila said as she slowly approached Jake who was still somewhat sitting on the floor. She kneeled on the ground lifting up her pure white dress making sure it wouldn't be minimally stained by the wet grass. She extended her hand with a smile "I'm Dalila, Dalila Holmes, although I presume you already knew that" Jake took her hand that just like the rest of her complexion was extremely pale. He had seen pictures of her before but due to the fact they were black and white he could never make out how pale she actually was and how her hair was not black like he thought but a very dark shade of brown. And her eyes, he always thought she had blue eyes but looking at them they were almost grey. He began to analyze everyone's appearance, realizing that the pictures that his Grandfather showed him didn't make them justice at all. "I'm Jake...Portman" he honestly expected her hand to be as cold as ice but he noticed that just like Olive she was also wearing a pair of gloves, although hers were made out of pure white silk while Olive's were black leather ones.

"You are dead." He began to whisper
"All of you. You're all dead. He is... he is invisible that is... but he's still dead." He said panicking slightly.
"None of us are dead" Emma said looking at Jake, this is the first time they made explicit direct eye contact with each other and neither of them wanted to stop holding the gaze. Jake's eye suddenly widened "Am I dead?!?" He said as the panic in his voice just grew and grew while the other children where simply confused. Did he not know about the temporal loop?
"No." Dalila responded simply as she looked at Olive with a confused look to which she simply raised her shoulders.

At a certain point as they all led Jake through the entrance of the loop he began to run away to who knows where.
"Miss. Peregrin will have our heads if he gets hurt!" Olive exclaimed as she began to furiously agitate her hands.
"No one will get hurt, Olive!" Emma exclaimed back as she led the way to the carriage
"Technically we don't know that, with his accent it is really easy for people to mistake him for an American spy and shoot him right in between the eyes" Dalila said as she hopped on the Carriage. "OH MY GOD WE ARE RUINED!" "No one is ruined, Olive!" Emma screamed at her and then turned to Dalila.
"This is fun" Dalila smiled innocently as Emma tried her best to maintain her patience.
"You really need to teach me your trick to remain calm during stressful situations, Dalila. Bronwyn bring the twins back to Mss. Peregrine and tell her about our little....umm" "accident" Dalila finished for her.
With a last reassuring smile to the younger kids they took off.
It was quiet for a while and in a moment of pure silence the three girls began laughing. This is what they always did for some reason, in a situation that was by no means funny or lighthearted, they could always find comfort in each other's laughter.
"Can you please quit your hysterical laughter? I'm taking my clothes off" Millard announce.
"Why are you taking your clothes off?" Olive asked confused.
"Well logically if Jake went into the pub expecting to find his hotel those men are going to have a lot to question, and as I said before, the whole American spy factor" Dalila said as she adjusted the white ribbon that sat nicely in her hair. Emma agreed and silence fell back on the carriage again.

"I'm thinking of asking Enoch on a date" Olive blurted out of nowhere
"What?!" Both Millard and Emma exclaimed at the same time. "Olive, are you sure you want to do that?" Emma asked genuinely worried. "Well yeah I mean we have been spending so much time together so I think it might not be unrequited this time" she said smiling brightly.

"Olive...he treats you like his dog" Millard intervened. "He does not! Besides I wasn't going to do it without talking to you first, Dalila" she said shifting her gaze towards the brunette.
"Huh? What? Why?" Dalila asked utterly confused.
"Well you used to have a very strong bond, so I wanted to see if you had any advice? Or just any opinions on the matter" Olive said.

"Well we aren't friends so any advice I could give you will probably be futile" Dalila said as she simply looked at the panorama they were passing by. "I know but I just thought-" "I know Olive, but I haven't had a proper conversation with Enoch in almost 40 years..." Dalila said looking genuinely calm but if someone would have just payed more attention you could clearly see the tiny icicle's that grazed the tip of her gloves as she held her hands in fists.

If you would ask Dalila the reason why Enoch O'Connor hated her, she would tell you that she had absolutely no clue. Although if you asked her the reason why SHE hated Enoch O'Connor then a list was about to surely come your way.
1. He is arrogant
2. He is incredibly selfish
3. He hid all of their letters to Abe from Abe making sure they would never reach him.

There was never a clear confrontation between the two, but from that day on an unspoken hatred fell upon them. Insults were always slyly thrown each other's way, mean glares at dinner time and so on and so forth. To think they used to be best friends who always did everything together, is now quite comical. She was actually the one who taught him to sew tight stitches making sure that the heart wouldn't fall out of his dolls while they battled. While he was the one who taught her how to play chess and pretty much any other game.
"We're here!" Emma announced as she hopped off the carriage. Shouts and yells could be heard from the pub.
"This can't be good" Millard spoke fully unclothed and invisible.
"We need to go!" Emma ran towards the pub with the others following.