Souls// Enoch O'Connor {1}•••

Chapter Two-- My Peculiarity/Talking With Jacob

I woke up in a cold sweat. Enoch was sitting next to me, fiddling with one of his dolls. "Hey." I muttered, sitting up. "Finally, your up. I was getting worried that I might have to find a new best friend!" Enoch exclaimed. I laughed. "How long was I out?"

Enoch frowned. "Only a day and a half." He said nonchalantly.

"WHAT??" I nearly yelled. He nodded. "It gets worse every time. You need to learn to control your peculiarity." I shook my head. "I can't. You know I've tried. It doesn't work."

He nodded. "I know. It's just... Ah, never mind. Ill go tell The Bird that you're up. She wants Jacob to talk to you."
He stood up and left.

I sat waiting for Jacob to come up. Miss Peregrine always tells the newbies to come up and talk to me. In her eyes, I was the wisest and most serious person here, and usually I had foreseen things about new peculiars that she wanted me to discuss with them.

"Hey, Aspen." Jacob said, walking into the room. I smiled at him and pointed to the rocking chair across the room. "Have a seat." He complied.

"So... Miss Peregrine wanted me to talk to you for some reason. She said I should've done it yesterday, but apparently you went available." He said quietly. I nodded and smiled. "The is normal when we get a new peculiar." I said.

"But that's the thing, I'm not peculiar. I'm just normal old Ja-" "Jacob Portman. You were born in Florida, you're best friend was a wackjob, and you were driven here due to your grandfather's last words. And you are very much peculiar." I finished.

He started at me, his mouth hanging open. "How did you know all that?!" I smirked. "Let me tell you a story."

"Back in the year of 1614 , there was a little girl born to a very happy family. Both of her parents were peculiar, and they were a little disappointed when their young daughter didn't show signs of peculiarity. She lived as a normal girl, oblivious to her parents' fantasy world. Then one night, when the little girl was eight, she woke up with a bad dream. She told her parents that she didn't want to go to school the next day because a man in a black suit and a cowboy hat would come in and kill everyone. Her parents thought it was a load of rubbish, but they let her stay home. Later that day, they heard news from the neighbors. Apparently, a little boy who was playing in the school courtyard had seen a man in a black suit with a hat covering his eyes walk into the school. The little boy had hid, and soon he heard a BANG , and the school burnt down, everyone inside dead. The girl's parents were shocked, but they had an idea of what was going on. So they  packed up and moved across the country to Maryland. The little girl and her parents lived there for about a year without any problems, until one day, the girl's grandmother passed away. At the funeral, the girl was very confused as to why everyone was crying. She asked her mother, "Why is everyone crying when grandma's right there?" Her parents were confused, but they let it go, thinking this was just their daughter's way of grieving. The next few years passed on, the girl having strange dreams that somehow predicted tragic events before they happened. One day, when she was sixteen, she was having breakfast with her family when she stiffened up. She didn't move, but her eyes turned black and she started crying. Her parents knew what was happening, but they didn't help her.

"She woke up later that day, telling her parents that she saw a strange creature, with tentacles and no eyes. Her parents tries to stay calm, but they couldn't. So they loaded up the carriage and took their horse down to the local church. They told their daughter, "Run, go to the top of the bell tower and don't look back. There will be someone waiting for you, go with her. You'll be safe." So the girl listened, and ran up to the top. She was very confused, why didn't her parents come with her? Once at the top, she looked out the window. There were her parents, lying on the ground with their eyes missing, dead. She started crying, she was all alone now. Then she felt a hand on her arm, and turned to see an old, fat woman. "I'm Miss Pigeon, it'll be okay, dearie." Miss Pigeon took the girl into her loop and told her everything about peculiars. Over the years, she learned more about her peculiarity. This girl was a seer, the most rare peculiarity. There was only one ever before her, and people don't even know of she was real. She kept on getting visions of the creature that killed her parents, known as a hollow. She told Miss Pigeon, and she was very grateful for the information that the girl was able to acquire.

"One day, the girl was playing outside when a strange man entered the loop. The girl immediately hid, seeing as it was the same man from all those years ago. Black suit and cowboy hat, the girl now knew that this was a Wight.
Miss Pigeon came and found the girl, and quickly handed her off to a lady she would know as Miss Albatross. The girl panicked, not wanting to leave the loop behind. But the wight had brought a hollow to the loop, and the girl watched in horror as it killed her friends and Miss Pigeon too, leaving them eye-less and cold. Miss Albatross took her to her loop, but the same thing happened years later, to that loop, and the next one.

"The girl was never the same, now living in Miss Peregrine's loop, hiding from the hollows. She tries not to make many friends, she doesn't want to be hurt again when the hollows come knocking at her door. And that girl, is me." I finished. I hated telling this story, but Miss Peregrine insisted, therefore new peculiars could make a fair choice- stay in the loop, or stay in the world.

Enoch had come back into the room, and he came over and sat next to me in the bed. I hugged him, he understood me because he was in that last loop, and we were the only survivors.

Jacob looked truly sorry for me, and after a while, he spoke up. "So, your a seer. What does that mean exactly?"

"As a seer, I can see many things. I have prophetic dreams, like Horace, but not as frequently as he does. I also can see souls, which explains why I can see Millard, hollows, ghosts, and anyone who is trying to hide from me. I also have random visions, where my eyes turn black and I pass out. Normally, whatever happens to me in the visions happens in real life, too. If I get a bruise in the vision, I get a bruise in real life. It gets really bad sometimes, because I can't control it. That's why I as unavailable yesterday, as soon as I saw you, you triggered a vision. Sometimes, they happen when something important happens. When your grandfather Abe died, I was there, standing next to you in my vision, watching it happen. That's how I know who you are. I've been having visions of you for a while now."

Jacob looked at the clock. "It's getting late, I should go soon." I frowned. "Wait, I need to tell you something. You need to stay in the loop. You can go home tonight, but you need to decide to stay by the end of the week. It's clouded, but I can sense bad things in your future. And trust me, you don't want to be a lone peculiar when bad things happen." I said.

"I'll keep that in mind." He said. He walked out the door, leaving me alone with Enoch. After a while, Enoch brushed a strand of my green hair behind my ear and said goodnight, going down to the basement to sleep.