𝕖𝕟𝕠𝕔𝕙.

hearts and dolls

I pulled back from the kiss and looked up at enoch, his cheeks were red and he looked as though he was trying to contain a smile.

enoch slid his hand down my arm and clasped our fingers together, "that was, um, unexpected. the good unexpected though." he said not looking in my eyes, I smiled sheepishly, "well good, if it wasn't then that would be awkward." enoch snorted, which made me laugh. he laughed and it was utterly refreshing.

miss.mclaggin and the children returned later that night, Hugh's nose had a bandage and splotchy bruises around the bridge. Alfie stormed in and stomped up the stairs, mumbling incoherent insults.
miss.mclaggin shuffled the children into the main hall and they dispersed throughout the house. ben leaned against the door frame in the parlour and raised his eyebrows at enoch and I, "do anything interesting while we were gone?" poppy came up behind him and thwacked him in the side of the head, "just because you'll never find someone wanker doesn't mean you have to live vicariously through enoch and aspen." he rolled his eyes and walked away.

poppy sat in one of the velvet chairs and began to speak just as miss.mclaggin interrupted, "poppy darling could you please take the others up to bed, Aspen you as well. I need a moment to speak with enoch." poppy nodded and gestured for me to hook arms with her. I scrambled up and gave enoch a worried look while passing.

poppy invited me to chat while the bathroom was being taken up, she led me to her room. it was a lovely navy blue with golden stars painted on the walls. I stood taking it all in. she spoke up, "do you like the walls?" I smiled, "I absolutely love them." she shuffled towards her bed and flopped down, "I painted them the first night I got here because I couldn't sleep, things were just happening so fast and it was quite a change to the life I was accustomed to." I raised my eyebrow, "why such a big change?" I asked. she shrugged, "my parents had quite a lot of money. they came into it when my father started his own cigar company."
(Weird flex but okay.)
I nodded and fidgeted awkwardly, "I think you're really good for enoch." she blurted, my cheeks burned, "he was really kind of a foul prick before meeting you and it's quite nice to see him relax a bit." she blurted again. I snorted, "that's enoch relaxed?" she laughed, "he always seems tense to be honest." she shrugged, "I guess that's just kind of how he is, he's never really been one for having normal reactions to emotion." she chuckled.

just then enoch stood in the doorway, he cocked his head to the side, "you going to bed now?" i nodded, "night poppy."
I followed enoch into his room and he pulled out the mattress from underneath and got settled. I crawled onto his bed and slid under the covers, he spoke out, "I wish I had a bigger bed." he shifted to face up to me, "I want to lie with you." rose crawled it's way up to my cheeks, enoch reached up for my hand and a smile arose from the corners of his mouth as he closed his eyes. as did I.

I woke up to shuffling around the room and I looked down at enoch grumbling and shaking in his sleep. I reached down and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes shot open and he took a big gasp of air. "you alright love?" he nodded, "just peachy." there was a strange silence lingering in air, I spoke, "I just realized you never actually showed me what being a dead riser actually means." he shifted and sat up, "alright come with me." we creaked down the stairs and quickly put on our shoes and coats. enoch grabbed ahold of my hand and led me into the backyard.

large topiaries littered the grass and had a thin powder of snow decorating them. we walked all the way to the back of the yard and stopped abruptly at an old shed, the snow crunching beneath our feet. enoch unlocked the large door and pushed it open to reveal a dim interior with a large shelf of jars littering the walls. he reached up to the top shelf and pulled down two jars, one small and the other large.
enoch handed them to me and then he went towards a large crate. It released a foul odour and he pulled out a doll with the cut out. he led me to a desk on the opposite side of the room and he took the jars. the tops screeched as he twisted them to open, then he proceeded to reach into the smaller jar and pull out a foul smelling bloody object. "it's a bird heart." enoch pushed the heart into the chest cavity of the doll and leaned down as if to whisper in its ear.

the dolls eyes sprung open and enoch smirked, the doll began to do a little dance, flailing its stiff appendages around. I giggled and clapped, "this is wonderful and ever so strange." he smiled and took ahold of the doll, swiftly pulling out the heart and putting it back into the liquid filled jar. he put everything back and turned to me, "I still haven't figured out the whole brain thing, but for now they just do what i tell them."

we returned to the house just as the sun was beginning to peak up on the horizon.

hello darlings!
this took so long and I'm so sorry for the wait, I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and I wish you all best of luck for school! I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the comments and 4K reads!!! I am utterly grateful. honestly thank you all for reading and commenting it truly keeps me going.

-sam xoxo