The Necromancer Who Loved Her | Olive x Enoch

Prologue: A Bunch of Freaks

Prompt: Circus AU .

As much as I hate not going on book cannon - move!Olive and movie!Enoch was just too adorable not to write about. So I've just mixed the two universes together.

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One would assume that being sold to a travelling circus at the tender age of 16 would ruin a girl as pristine as Olive Elephanta. A circus was not a place for such a delicate flower. Being on the road all year, travelling from city to city, was not suitable for a child. Yet, Olive was determined from the moment she arrived to take this in her stride. She did, after all, belong there as much as the others.

Having fire in her hands made her one of them. People were scared of her, of the destruction she caused. Her own parents forced her there out of fear - their own daughter, all because she was different.

But so were they.

There was a boy not much younger than herself who could predict the future through dreams. Horace was a bit pompous for her taste but he was a nice boy nonetheless and more importantly, he knew how to draw a crowd. The audience would flock to his decadently decorated tent to hear his marvellous predictions -  if not his wonderful taste in clothes. He would talk forever to anyone who would listen, whether that was the public or cast mate, which would have driven them all crazy if it wasn't for the amount of pennies he drew in. She never did ask him how he came to be in their peculiar band but she suspected from his clearly rich upbringing that it was more tragic than her own reasons.

Little Claire was a delight to be around and brought joy to whoever she was with. She was not yet allowed on stage being as young as she was but she was allowed to be with them anyway as no one else would have her. It saddened Olive to think that the world could be so cruel to a girl as lovely as Claire. The child was not a danger to anyone, her peculiarity was hidden but she was cast out of society regardless. She was just odd - a freak like all of them - and people hated her for it.

Bronwyn could hold Olive over her head all day if she was allowed. For a girl as small as she was, it was a wonder that she could hold up anything heavier than a suitcase but somehow she managed it. Her equally as powerful older brother, Victor, joined her on stage each night and the two of them amazed with their strength. Olive was told when she joined not to ask questions about why the siblings were with them which intrigued her, but she had heard enough rumours involving an accident and a death to not want to seek answers.

You could always tell Hugh was near by the sudden presence of bees buzzing in the air. She didn't know whether his infestation was magic or whether he just swallowed a load of bees one day and they started to grow inside of him. Olive was only just getting used to the persistent buzzing that followed him around, which was precisely the reason he was given a role in the crew. Occasionally, he was allowed on stage for the briefest of moments, especially when the crowd was being particularly harsh but otherwise he was cooped up backstage doing some heavy lifting. His peculiarity was as annoying as it was wonderful, and they needed paying happy customers not agitated ones.

Fiona, when she was not hovering around Hugh like one of his bees, usually positioned herself out of the tent, marvelling the audience members with her powers over the earth. She never spoke much, but Hugh had told her that she was chased out of her town out of fear of her being a witch. She was safe now, not many suspected her to be a witch anymore. Most people claimed her powers were a hoax, just a series of pulleys and wires all to get ignorant members of the public to cough up money to see more. Her reputation as a con artist was not an issue to her though, people paid anyway. 

The star of the show was Emma - the girl who could fly away - who had become a quick friend to Olive. She was talkative, fiery, and quite simply enthralling. People came from all over the country just to see her. They didn't care if it was trick or real, Emma gave such a performance that it didn't make a difference. If she didn't have her abilities, Olive was sure people would still have paid just to see her. Some people just had it, and Emma was definitely one of them.

Miss Peregrine was their leader and the namesake of their circus. She was as loving as she was stern, keeping the children inline while also giving them the feeling of a mother who cared for them.  Olive would never be able to repay the kindness she had shown her. Taking her away from the family that was scared of her, giving her food and shelter when she needed it the most, introducing her to a new family who loved her.

And then there was Enoch.

Olive had been with them a year and so far she'd only managed to get a few words out of the boy that weren't insults (not for lack of trying). He was crew, on strict orders not to talk to the public so as to not scare them off. To put it politely, Enoch was pessimistic. It was a running joke that at any given moment, at least one member of their trope was annoyed at Enoch. He was far from a people person. But that was exactly why Olive was drawn to him. He was an enigma. One she was so desperate to solve.

It was common knowledge that he fancied Emma. Everyone teased him about it which was met with curt replies that only confirmed their theories. Olive had caught him staring at her a few times as the blonde girl performed and had to remind her self that the ache in her chest was just from nerves and not jealousy. He was not hers and never would be.

But that didn't mean she couldn't be his friend.

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Don't worry, there's a reason I didn't include some of the characters yet.