Hope (Enoch O'Connor x Reader)

Chapter 10: Your peculiarity is making dolls?

You know, I'm accepting that waking up on the floor in a pool of sweat under the window after falling asleep while trying to look at the stars is gonna just be part of this loop. I know our actions don't have to be the same each day, but this feels like it's gonna be a habit. A very fucked-up habit. A sucky habit. A sucky, sucky, sucky habit. Better get used to it. I knew the nightmares would come. They always will. All I can do is get on with the day. So down I go to the breakfast table.

+ + +

What am I going to do with my day today? I wonder after I finish clearing off the table from breakfast. Emma has already decided to help Fiona in the garden. I would do that with them, but... I don't want to. So what's my next best option? Oooh, I've got it! I'm a complete and utter genius! Let's go outside and garden with Emma and Fiona coz I don't really know what else to do! Good idea! I start to walk towards the front door when I wonder how Miss Avocet is going. Yeah, let's go check on my ymbryne, probably something I should have done last night. I haven't made sure Miss Avocet was healing since I went hunting for that boar yesterday.

+ + +

Miss Avocet looks a lot better. Miss Peregrine has been caring for her so well. However, she apparently isn't well enough to transform back into a human. No matter how much healthier she looks, she's been a bird for the past 36 hours. That's really bad for her, she could get really sick—No. No, she will get better, not sick, better. Miss Peregrine will make sure of that.

I wander around the house for a while, snooping around a little, until I somehow end up out front of Enoch's room. I shouldn't walk in. Olive said not to.

But fuck Olive. I don't answer to her. I barely answer to Miss Avocet if I find the order stupid or unreasonable. So, call me stupid, but she ain't my mother. Fortunately that bitch died many years ago. And I also wanna know what Enoch does with his animal hearts. I bet he eats them.

I open the door, close it behind me and go up to Enoch's desk. There is a small stool on my side of the desk, so I sit on it and watch what he is doing. He looks up for a second then continues to work.

"Well, hello to you too. Whatcha doing?"

Enoch is stitching a crab claw onto an old, grotesque doll with other weird animal parts sewn on it. I wonder exactly what he does with these dolls. He ties off the stitch as he replies.

"This is my peculiarity." He says, as if it makes complete sense and I'd be stupid not to understand what it means.

"What? Manufacturing dolls? I'm pretty sure you could go into business with the amount you have made." I say, looking over at a small pile of grotesque animal part dolls in the corner of the room. "Although, I think you'll go out of business real quick."

He smirks and looks up at me approvingly because of the joke, then catches himself, puts on his usual frown and sets the doll down. Another doll with a crab body lies on his desk.

"Okay, then, well... this is my peculiarity." He says as he takes out a jar with two floating red blobs inside suspended in preservative liquid.

"Wow. You mass produce dolls and collect mouse hearts. And I thought my peculiarity was cool."

His mouth goes up at one corner and he snorts as he puts a mouse heart inside each of the two dolls. He then whispers to one something and nods his head towards the other. And then it is on.

"My peculiarity is bringing things back from the dead for a little while." Enoch says as the dolls begin to fight. "If I make something and bring it to life, I can control it and give it orders. If it was once alive and I bring it back, I can't control it but I can ask it to do stuff and it can follow my order if it wishes to.

The dolls fight each other until only one is left standing, with the heart on the other one ripped out. I stare, fascinated the whole time, curious on which doll fights the best. A small smile plays on my lips as I watch intrigued with how the dolls try to rip off one another's limbs, when the real prize is the heart.

In the end, the crab body doll wins against crab-claw, chicken-foot doll.

"Wow. That's actually really cool." I tell him, impressed.

"What?" He says, looking at me suspiciously.

"I said that's really cool. You got a really good peculiarity."

"You're... not... scared off or anything?"

"Um, why would I be?"

"Because I made scary dolls fight to the death."

"Trust me, Enoch, you'll need a lot more than a few 'scary dolls' to get rid of me."

"Um, I also make homunculi, which are little clay men." He says as he opens a draw and pulls one out. He hands it to me and I inspect it, interested.

"I've always wanted to build an army of these. Except, huge, bigger than six inches. But, I've only build twenty of them. And they are all six inches. Not exactly the giants I wanted, but, whatever, they could protect a nest of ants at this size."

I giggle at that, then start to wonder about these little clay men. "Why do you want to build an army of these? What do you want an army for?"

"To, uh, do something..." He murmurs, pretty unsure of his need for an army of clay men.

"Right. To do something. Of course. I won't of thought of that at all." I tease him. "So how long can you bring something back alive for?"

"That depends on what it is and how big the heart is. If the heart is the right size for a specific dead thing, it usually will stay alive for five minutes. But if it is an object, like my dolls, it will stay alive as long as it needs to do the task I asked it."

"So the dolls could fight for days until one gets its heart ripped out and the other's heart just stops as it has completed its task?"

"Yeah. I know that coz I made two of the same dolls fight each other once. They had the same tactics. That battle lasted, maybe three or four days, I think?"

"Wow. You are really talented, you know that? Enoch? You listening?"

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So, Y/N completely ignored Olive's warnings? Whatcha guys think of that? Should you be worried for yourselves? Probably not. I won't let anything too horrible happen to you guys. But I lie a lot so don't trust that! HEHEHE! I'm gonna do an Enoch POV next chapter, so stay tuned for that. Or will I? Remember, I lie. But that could be a lie. But that could be a lie that I lie? AAARRRGGGHHH too many lies! Oh well, stay tuned for the next chapter. Comment please, I wanna hear from you guys. Do you like it so far? Is there anything in particular that you want me to include. TELL ME and I will put it in. Bub-Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

~Tamika