That Peculiar Feeling | Mphfpc ~Enoch O'Connor~

Chapter Eight

A/N~ it's a short one again sorry :/

I followed Olive out of my room to where the others were gathered outside for the 'reset'. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror, the dark circles even more prominent now and wispy strands of hair sticking out at all angles.

Olive was explaining what a reset was on the way outside, I was half listening, but mostly worrying about the stares I would get from the others. I could almost hear the muttering and whispers from them, echoing around in my head. The only thing that I heard properly was "Rewinding the day."

Before we reached the front door, Olive stopped.

"Don't pay attention to Enoch, he's the oldest out of us all and you could say he has, soured, over the years."

"I get it, I'd be pretty moody too if I had to stay in same place for so long." I replied.

"He is good guy once you get to know him, if you can stand the sarcasm." She said rolling her eyes jokingly. "Come on, we don't want to be late for the reset, the Bird will have our heads!"

I smiled, that was my first real smile in months. Something about this sweet little red-head made me warm inside, no pun intended, and I think we are going to be good friends.

The headmistress and all the children were standing outside, facing a tall statue and a  large gramophone. Gas masks were passed around, I slipped one on, pulling my hair out from under it. Even with their faces covered I could tell who was who, so I stood with Emma on my left, and Olive on my right. As far away from Enoch as possible.

                                                                       ...

Enoch's P.O.V

I didn't want to say what I said, it just, came out.

The reset was about to begin, I stole a quick glance at her. She was looking down at her boots. When she ran off in the middle of dinner, she seemed pretty upset, or angry, I wasn't sure. I got a shouting at from Miss P though, she seemed even angrier then when I upset any of the others. As soon as I said what I said, I felt really bad, like I'd been punched in the gut.

Horace had a dream about her a couple of days ago, I just thought she was a tailor or something like that, since that's all the damn kid dreams about. She was walking down the beach, not far from the children's home, then someone shouted her name and it went black. I'd paid extra attention to all his dreams since then, to see if she showed up again. Her face somehow got burned into my mind, I could never forget it.

When she walked into my room earlier, I was surprised. Then she asked questions, and when I didn't proper give answers, she acted like I'd answered them perfectly. The thing that confused me the most about her was why she cared so much about my dolls, most people are just repulsed by them. It's why I stay in the basement.

Miss P wound up the gramophone and the familiar melody of 'Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run' started up. I stared up at the German planes flying overhead. I glanced again at Eden, she was standing poised, as if paralysed, her hands trembling as they fiddled with her skirt. I almost forgot how scary it must be seeing a reset for first time, especially one as intense as ours.

The repetitive song rang in my ears, as everyone looked at the now approaching bomber plane. I yawned under my mask, why did the reset have to take so long? The bomb had been dropped, and was now flying through the sky. I crossed my arms over my chest as it got closer.

Eden's P.O.V

Was no one aware of a deadly bomb heading directly for us? I was chewing on my bottom lip under my mask, waiting to feel the explosion. Then everything stopped. The bomb stopped, the rain drops stopped midair, even the planes flying through the sky stopped in their tracks.

Miss Peregrine, holding her oversized pocket watch, started to wind it back quickly with her thumb. Everything seemed to change direction, and start spinning the opposite way. The bomb went flying back up, the dark night sky turned bright blue, then orange, then dark again. The song playing on the gramophone warped and changed its melody. Then it all stopped again.

They do this every night? Everyone took off their masks, so I did the same. I found my eyes wandering to look at Enoch, it seems his did the same. Our eyes met awkwardly and he immediately turned and looked the other way, rubbing the back of his neck.

Olive then looked at me smiling, and said; "Let's go and get ready for movie time."

"What's that?"

"Horace shows us his dreams, it's quite entertaining. You might even make an appearance!" She answered, the grin never leaving her face.

I smiled in return.

These children led a rather peculiar life indeed.