A strange peculiarity || Enoch O'Connor

chapter twenty eight

A day and a half the tired group had been trying to navigate the streets of London, and in an attempt to regroup, they stopped in what was once a house. The older ones had resorted to carrying the younger, whose bodies tired easier and they could not go on. None of them had imagined it would be this hard, so caught up in saving the world and their ymbrynes. It was hard to feel sorry for yourself when the whole of peculiardom was at stake.

They set up camp for the night, unable to make a fire due to the blackout, and were trying to get some sleep, when they noticed a tall man in a strange outfit walking towards them.

"You kids should be in a shelter, where are your parents?" He asked them, they glanced at each other, unsure as to what to say.

"We're orphans sir." Jeanette finally answered. That was indeed true for most, if not all of them.

"Our orphanage was bombed sir." Emma added. "We don't know what to do."

"And why weren't you evacuated?" He continued, they had to come up with something quickly, no one would believe the truth.

"The matron at our orphanage did not believe it would work. What does it matter to the world if there are less orphans?" Jeanette said, looking pitiful. The man looked horrified.

"And whom was your matron?" He asked, he looked like he was going to give their imaginary matron a good talking to.

"Alma Eagle." Emma fabricated, Jeanette was impressed, merging their ymbrynes names so that they would not get their ymbrynes into trouble should they be free was a good idea.

"Don't worry children, you will not be going back to that orphanage." He told them, they exchanged glances, if he was going to be keeping tabs on them, they would have to be very quite when sneaking out. "Now let's get you to that shelter." He added.

The followed him, whom they found out had the job of air raid warden, through many windows streets, and then underground, into a series of strange tunnels that held many rooms. They were given a corner in a room of mothers and young children, who watched the group with curiosity.

"Alright, we are all in need of sleep, and at least here we are protected." Emma said, they all looked at her, even the others in the room.

"Emma is right, we don't know what tomorrow brings for us." Jeanette added, the group finally settled, although for many it was hard to get to sleep.

Jeanette had seen London only once before, but then there had been no automobiles, no strange sirens, no war, and most certainly no electric street lamps.

When she had visited with her father, there had been grand dresses, carriages pulled by horses and a few workhouses dotted around. Those had scared her, and she had been glad she and her father were fortunate enough as to not have to go in one due to lack of money, they had always had just enough for the two.

"What are you thinking about?" Enoch asked her, he was lying beside Her as the two tried to get some sleep.

"Last time I came here, there was no war." She mused. "Or electric lamps." He laughed.

"Well, things change rather dramatically when your stuck in a loop." He said knowledgably, I've been in two loops and even both of them were different."

"I wonder if we'll ever get to see Jacob's time." Jeanette wondered aloud, he looked at her. "It would be interesting to see how it had all changed."

"I suppose it would." He agreed, the two finally fell asleep, leaving only one of their group awake.

Leo could not sleep, even though he had tried so hard to do so. His mind was racing with the thoughts of everything that had happened, and then even though he had fought to keep the thoughts of Ethan away, his mind always came back to his lover.

The way they had tried so hard to pretend that they just had a by of a rivalry, that they were just friends. But Jeanette had known, Evangeline had known, and he guessed that Alice had known as well.

Ethan had comforted him through the nightmares, making sure he went to bed after he had made sure that nothing would hurt him. Making him feel safe, but now each time the nightmares came, Ethan was at the forefront, and that scared him a lot more.

He knew what Ethan was capable of, what he could do if no-one stopped him, and as scary as that was, and he had always known it, Ethan was basically unstoppable. And yet Leo just wanted his Ethan back, the boy who he and their best friend had laughed with, the boy who had really loved him, not this monster he had become.

But had this the Ethan that had been there the whole time? Had this monster always been there and they just hadn't noticed? Could have he been so blind? Tears stung his eyes as he thought of this, he knew that they said love was blind, but could it really have been true?

Maybe that's why Stephan had never liked Ethan, because he sensed the darkness that festered there. All of this hurt Leo's head, had he really been so stupid? And was his heart really so wrong to still love him, his monster? How had he let his heart be taken over by him? How had he lost his heart so completely?

Finally, Leo fell asleep, his heart hurting for the boy he had thought he knew.

And not as far away as they all had assumed, Ethan hoped that his boy, his Leo was alright, he hoped his family would one day forgive him, all he was doing was trying to protect them, he just hoped they would one day see it too.

But would they? After all of the feelings of betrayal, would they ever forgive him?