Borrowed Time ⏱ Enoch O'Connor

~ III ~

The boys distant figure disappears through a large double door, left slightly agape, no doubt awaiting my arrival. I push forward so as not to keep them waiting and quickly brush myself down hoping my modern clothing wouldn't stand out too much against the grand 1940's interior.

Taking a deep breath I walk into the room and am met by ten eager faces, or at least nine, minus the grumpy boy who was now seated at the far end of the rather long table. Miss Peregrine turns to smile at me and begins the introductions.

"Everyone, this is Anastasia. Anastasia, this is everyone" she warmly introduces. Everyone's gaze is now towards me, waiting eagerly for my reply. Even the grumpy boy's eyes briefly flick toward me then away again as my eyes meet his.

"Um, hello" I manage to squeeze out, briefly paralyzed by everyone's stares.

"Children it is not polite to stare at a person, you are making Anastasia uncomfortable." Miss Peregrine states sternly.

"Sorry, Anastasia," they murmur, looking ashamed.

"Really it's no problem, you needn't apologise!" I say taking an empty seat next to a small girl with short brown hair.

"So, what's your name?" I ask the small girl, taking a reassuring tone.

"My name's Bronwyn" she replies happily.

"May I call you Wyn?" I ask politely hoping not to offend the small girl.

"Yes please!" she answers, exited by my suggestion.

This receives a noticeable grunt of disagreement from across the table. Looking up I see the grumpy boy from earlier still staring at his plate.

"And what might your name be, or am I to call you grumpy?" I say loud and clear so he would be able to hear me, this leaves the younger ones laughing and happily chattering amongst themselves. After hearing no reply, I say "grumpy it is then." Even Miss Peregrine gives a slight break from her more stern composure to chuckle and shake her head dismissively.

The others continue with their introductions;

"Horace," a smartly dresses boy with combed back blonde hair says next to little Bronwyn. 

"Fiona," the girl beside him says, her plaits swinging when she turned to me.

"Olive," a girl with fiery red hair says confidently raising a gloved hand into the air to give a slight wave.

"Hugh." The boy next to her nods, a lone bee flying around his head and out the large door.

"Claire," the second little girl whispers obviously shy. That's when I recognised her as the small girl clinging to Miss Peregrine earlier, silent as a mouse with tight blonde curls cascading down her back onto her delicate pink dress. 

"I must say, your dress is beautiful" I add with a wink. This giving Claire more confidence. She soon smiles happily up at me, her shy exterior melting to reveal her bouncy personality.

"These are the twins." Miss Peregrine introduces on behalf of the masked pair, "and Miss Bloom should be arriving shortly." I nod and everyone soon tucks in to the marvellous spread laid before us, with Miss Peregrine's permission of course.

"May I ask you all something?" I say nervously after awhile of everyone munching away to themselves. 

"Why, of course!" Miss Peregrine nods, placing her hands together and focussing her full attention on me.

"I hope this doesn't come across as impolite of me but I was only wondering what makes you all so... Peculiar?"

"No, no it's not impolite at all its rather thoughtful of you to ask!" A voice says from the empty seat beside me.

"Millard, how many times have I told you? Polite persons do not take supper in the nude! Go find some clothes." Miss Peregrine warns him sternly. Soon continuing by turning to me and saying, "well as you can see, or rather not see, Millard is invisible but the others may not be so obvious. Bronwyn, on your other side, is as strong as ten men and the twins here can turn people to stone, the masks are therefore very handy!" Miss Peregrine explains proudly with a chuckle.

Horace then speaks up "I have prophetic dreams," he informs me with pride.

"I make plants grow." Fiona says, looking toward Olive.

"I manipulate fire," says Olive, "also known as pyrokinesis."

"You can probably guess," Hugh says a swarm of bees flying out of his open mouth as he spoke, "I have bees living in my stomach." This earned a moan from the others as they swatted away the curious bees. Hugh mutters an apology whilst sucking the bees back into his stomach.

"Emma can levitate, she's lighter than air but you're already aware of that and little Claire here, well Claire, why don't you show her!" Miss Peregrine says winking at her.

"Yes I'd love that!" I say reassuringly.

"As you can see, Claire has a back mouth." Miss Peregrine says smiling at the shy girl who is now holding the large chicken leg behind her and munching on it contently.

"That's amazing! Come to think of it all of your peculiarities are amazing." I state calmly.

"So Anastasia, what makes you peculiar?" asked a returned Millard who was now, thankfully, fully clothed.

"Me?" I question not sure what to say.

"Yes, what makes you 'special'?" They all say in unison, well except for grumpy.

"I'm afraid I don't have any cool talents like all you do" I reply worried they may not like me now they know I'm defiantly one hundred percent boring and ordinary.

"There must be something!" Millard insisted.

"Nope, nothing, nada" I reply sheepishly.

"Now Millard, if Anastasia says there's nothing then you should listen to her." Miss Peregrine warns him once again forming a stern composure.

Conversation soon dwindled down to a minimum and after everyone had finished Miss Peregrine dismissed everyone to the living room to watch a movie before bed.  Everyone rushed out the door and raced to bagsie the best seats in the living room.

Me being me didn't think to hurry in the slightest and walked in when everyone had already seated themselves happily around Horace. The only available seat was next to grumpy so I stepped forward and perched between him and Claire who smiled and climbed on my lap, snuggling into my chest and turning to watch the dream Horace was now projecting through the monocle placed over his right eye.

The first dream was of Horace trying on a new expensive suit, which I'm told is a regular occurrence in his dreams. The second was slightly more interesting but we only saw a snap shot of me and what seemed to be an invisible force lifting me into the air. My first thought of course was Millard but this 'force' was huge and I was way too high for it to be one of Millard's tricks. Whatever it was Miss Peregrine obviously didn't want us to see any more, so she hurried us out to change for bed and watch the reset.

I only have a brief understanding of loops at this point and have not the slightest clue what she means by a reset but judging by how relaxed the children are I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. I was about to turn into my room when a grunt sounded beside me announcing the presence of grumpy.

"Enoch," he mumbles.

"Sorry what was that grumpy?" I teased.

"My name's Enoch," he repeats, louder this time.

"So you can talk?" I tease again. "I was hoping you didn't just grunt else I'd have to learn a new language." I joked, trying to lighten the mood. This just made Enoch turn and continue walking.

I got ready for bed and then followed the others outside for the reset.