Untouchable (A Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Story)

Chapter 12 🦔

Roxanne's POV:

As I came down the stairs, I saw Olive and Claire chattering about something. "What are you girls talking about?" I asked. Both of them turned from their conversation to face me. "Nothing," Claire whispered. "Hey, Roxanne, watch this," said Olive. She started to slip out of her shoes. "Goooollllyyy!" she shouted as she floated up to the ceiling. Claire burst out laughing, but I wasn't amused. In fact, I was mad.

"That isn't funny when you're the person getting laughed at," I stated coldly. I grabbed Olive's foot before she got too high and helped her back into her shoes. "Not groovy!" The little girls looked at me, confused, "What?" Claire asked. "It's just something people say in 1966, you wouldn't understand."

All of a sudden, something ran past me... or should I say someone. I'd recognize those brown quills anywhere. Lance! Was he laughing?! I haven't heard him laughing that much since we left Philadelphia. What has gotten into him? So, I decided to investigate.

"Hey, Lance," I said as I ran up to him. "Whatcha doin'?" My brother gave me a confused look. "Just playing with Mr. Quills." Who's Mr. Quills? As I was thinking, Lance revealed a smiling clay doll with quills sticking out. "Mr. Quills," Lance stated. To be honest, the doll was really cute, but it also kind of scared me. "Can I see that?" I asked. Slowly, Lance placed Mr. Quills in my hand. Then, I took off.

I couldn't help myself. Mr. Quills frightened me. It's strange for Lance to have such a dangerous toy like that. Of course, he knows better than to get hurt by something like that, but the others don't. The only game they could play with that doll is Roxy Takes You to the Doctor! I had no choice; it had to go!

"Give him back!" Lance screamed.

"No way," I retorted. Unfortunately, because Lance is faster than me, he caught me and grabbed the posterior of the doll. Thus began our tug of war, which ended with me almost winning. However, the two of us failed to notice that we were close to an open window. Long story short, Mr. Quills took a dive.

"Get him back!"

I shook my head. "It's a dangerous toy, Lance!"

"I don't care! He's my friend!"

I sighed. "Alright, let's go get him."

I crouched down, letting Lance climb onto my shoulders. Wow, he was a little heavier than last time, but that's probably because I haven't picked him up for a while. Anyway, I hurried down the stairs as fast as I could while carrying him out the door. Once we were outside, we began our search... that didn't very long. "There," Lance pointed to something brown in the grass. Yup! That was definitely Mr. Quills. Just before I could grab it, however, a pale hand took it.

It was Luna! She studied the tiny doll closely. "Is this yours?" she asked me.

"Actually," Lance said sliding off of my back, "he's mine." A few introductions were exchanged and the pale girl gave back the doll. "Oh no!" Lance said looking at some quills in the palm of her hand, frightened.

"It's okay, Lance. I don't feel them." Her eyes widened as she examined my brother's new toy. "Have I seen that somewhere before?" Lance shrugged. "Probably not. I just found him."

"It looks a lot like one of Enoch's homunculi."

Actually, that made sense. Mr. Quills was made of clay, just like the homunculi. Could Lance have... stolen it?! Don't get me wrong, I know he steals from me, but that's because he's my brother. This is just... no! As much as I hated what I was about to do next, it had to be done. I had to tell Enoch that I found his lost property.

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The basement had been the one part of the house I refused to go in. Except for Victor, most people in this house try to avoid Enoch's workshop of horrors. I could only imagine what he does in there. Still, I had to go in. He has to know about Mr. Quills.