Clay and Blood | Enoch O'Connor

Chapter 5

"Well, you must feel pretty out of place." said Enoch while working on something that Jake couldn't quite understand what it was.
Jake shifted awkwardly as he looked around, it looked like some sort of basement but it also had a small bed in the corner. Behind Enoch, countless jars with an odd liquid containing different organs and it smelled atrocious. "Don't worry, I'm used to it" he said.
"I wasn't worried" Enoch replied
"Some advice for you, man to man. If you think you're staying just because you like Dalila, don't even bother, just like her peculiarity her heart is cold and she swore off romance before even entering in this loop" he began "I wasn't-" "But, if you think you're staying here simply because you like Emma then you are in luck, she was madly in love with Abe and you sort of look like him" Jake became extremely red until he noticed what Enoch was doing.

"What are you doing?" Enoch didn't reply, he took a small chicken heart with a pair of tweezers and carefully sewed it in the deformed doll. A few seconds later the doll came to life alongside another weird clay doll. Olive began jumping up and down
"Isn't he amazing?!" she exclaimed as he looked extremely proud of himself.
"W-what did you do?" Jake backed away in fear "This? Oh Jake this isn't even the fun part" Enoch said "Do you wanna see the fun part?" he began whispering something in both the dolls ears and they began fighting. Jake felt terrified as he quickly backed away towards the door but as he was trying to get out the door he bumped against someone who was trying to get in. "Ouch" "Oh my god, Dalila, I'm so sorry" he said as he pressed his hand against her should where he accidentally hit her.
In seeing Dalila, Enoch's smug grin was completely wiped away from his face, she wasn't supposed to see that...
Dalila looked around the room carefully as what was happening was slowly settling in.

"I came here to call you all for dinner" she said coldly, never leaving Enoch's stare. "Oh and Jake, Emma has some clothes upstairs for you that you can change in before dinner" Jake took this as an opportunity to leave the room, leaving only Dalila, Enoch and Olive.

"Olive could you please head to the kitchen? Miss.Peregrin needs your help to boil the carrot" her gaze still not leaving Enoch's. Olive silently excused herself out of the room, leaving Enoch and Dalila alone.

There were a few moments of silence before Dalila spoke up "Abe's grandson comes to pay us a visit and what do you do? You traumatize him! What the hell were you even thinking?" she screamed.
"Oh please, of course you would have made it all about Abe, as usual!" Enoch stood up furiously from his work chair. " He didn't kill Victor, Enoch" "Yes he did! When he abandoned us, Victor felt so 'inspired' that he felt the need to do the same! If that bastard would have kept his ass where it belonged to than we would not be here in this situation!"
"You are unbelievable" she said trying to maintain her calm composure "And you are a blind, stupid little girl who still believes that this" he pointed his finger around referring to the loop "Is called living" his eyes never let her face once. In that moment he felt so much anger that he felt his whole body in flames. Instead of replying, Dalila just opened the door and left to go to the dining room. He couldn't witness the uncontrollable stream of tears that he provoked.

At dinner she sat down at her usual seat, with Horace on her left and a naked Millard on her right.
"Hey! What are you doing" spoke Millard as Jake accidentally attempted to sit on him, everyone laughed slightly.

"Millard, go and put some clothes on. Polite people do not take their supper in the nude" Miss. Peregrin said.
"Alright, alright!" and with that Millard went to put some clothes on.
"Can I sit here?" He asked pointing to the now empty seat next to Dalila and in front of Emma. Dalila nodded kindly making a bit more space for him now that Millard was gone.
"Oh look at Enoch, he's jealous" said Horace calling the attention of everyone at the table who turned to look at Enoch who was seated at the other end of the table.
"Why would I be jealous? Dalila can go marry Jake for all I care" he said looking directly at Horace and Dalila. Dalila simply sighted in annoyance as she massaged her temples. Almost everyone in the house was aware that they were not too fond of each other, but they always made sure to keep their feuds private and away from the young ones.

"Don't be mean Enoch, she's just happy that Abe's family came to visit." Emma tried to defend her from the opposite side of the table. Enoch simply rolled his eyes and fully laid back on his seat.
"Nobody is marrying anybody, now eat up your food" said Miss. Peregrin.
As they all were about to dig in their meal, a storm of bees came flying around the table.

"Hugh! Where is your net?!" Emma asked the boy sitting next to him. They all began to search for Hugh's net under the table. "Got it!" said Olive as she passed the net to Dalila who swiftly placed it on Hugh's head from across the table.

"It must be very strange for you Jake, to meet your grandfather's friends, visiting another century" Horace said "Are there spaceships in your time Jake?" asked Olive timidly. "We don't discuss the future here Olive. We enjoy living in the here and now. Claire, why aren't you eating?" Miss. Peregrin asked the younger one.
"She's a bit embarrassed in front of Jake" said Dalila.
"Oh don't be, please" he reassured. The young girl took the entire chicken leg and placed behind her head, only a munching noise to be heard. When she removed the leg from the back of her hair, all the meat was now gone. 'Oh, that was what he meant by back mouth' Jake thought. "So Jake, what is your peculiarity?" Millard asked, finally getting out the question that everyone was eagerly trying to formulate the answer to from the beginning.
"Oh, I'm... I'm not peculiar." Jake said as he looked down.
"And that my friends is why he'll not be staying with us. No matter how hard we try to persuade him." Enoch said with a smug smile that Dalila just wanted to punch off of his face.

"Oh shut up Enoch" she mumbled pinching the bridge of her nose, what was this headache. Everyone at the dinner table went quiet, this was the first time Enoch and Dalila's feuds where brought up so publicly at dinner time, but then little Claire spoke up. "Do you want to stay Jake?" Jake looked at her slightly confused. "like the night or...?" "Forever!" She replied happily. "You should stay forever" Dalila spoke from next to him humorously trying to ease the tension that was forming from Jake's silence.
"Why would he if he doesn't have to?" Enoch said "He can live out there. Grow older and have a good time instead. He'll leave. Just like his grandfather did." But this was Dalila's last straw, she angrily threw her napkin on the table and stormed off to her room.
"Dalila!" Miss. Peregrin called, but she didn't come back. She forced the door to her room open and searched under her bed for the familiar box. She took it out and with tears still brimming her eyes, she opened it, in there the millions of letters she wrote to Abe but have never been sent.

From Dalila
To Abe
May the winter be with you
September 3rd 1943-October 5th 1951

From Dalila
To Abe
May the winter be with you
September 3rd 1943-November 20th 1951

From Dalila
To Abe
May the winter be with you
September 3rd 1943-January 1st 1954

From Dalila
To Abe
May the winter be with you
September 3rd 1943-March 17th 1965

From Dalila
To Abe
May the winter be with you
September 3rd 1943-December 25th 1972

And so many more letters just like these ones. She shoved them all back into the old shoe box and kicked it right back under her bed as she continued to cry in her pillow. She looked at the large grandfather clock that stood in her room, it was almost time for movie night. She went to the washroom to splash cold water on her face. She gripped both sides of the sink as she looked at her face slowly losing its redness from crying, that was another benefit of her peculiarity. She could lower her body temperature as much as she wanted, therefore reducing any redness on the skin. She ran down the stairs knowing that she couldn't miss movie night, especially not after what happened at dinner.