Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

One, Five, Eight

This song means absolutely nothing to the chapter, but it's so lovely and makes me happy and I just wanted to share it with you guys. 😁

For the first time in days, I actually felt fully rested, and was able to get up at the same time as everyone else. It would have been nice, if it wasn't for the fact that I forgot that I would be leaving Millard's room at the same time as everyone getting up. In fact, I was just about to leave his room, when Millard grabbed my shoulder, turning me around.

"Do you really want to leave my bedroom while everyone else is up?" he asked cautiously. 

"Yeah, you're probably right," I muttered. "But how else am I supposed to leave?"

I looked around his room for some ideas. He had a lot of books. Could I chuck the hard-covered ones at people's heads and then quickly run away while they recovered? That would be fun, but probably not. Plus, right now probably wasn't a great time to freak people out, especially after the attack on Miss Avocet's wards the night before. 

But then I got an idea. 

"Why don't I just go through your window?" I pointed out to Millard. "I could just crawl out of it, and back into my room."

Millard just shrugged. "Go ahead. I'm not stopping you."

I nodded, and used Millard's chair to climb out of the window, and onto the small section of the roof provided. The sun was already up, and its warmth hit my face, as a soft breeze blew. I let it all sink in, before walking over to my window. Carefully, I was able to slide it open (thank goodness I kept it cracked open a little bit to let the breeze in every night) and hopped back into my room. It seemed cold and empty, so I was glad that I only needed to stay in there to get changed.

I quickly put fresh clothes on, and walked out of the door. Millard was waiting for me there, and we linked arms, and made our way to breakfast. No one said that it would be mandatory, but the fact that the night before even existed, heavily applied that everyone should be in the dining room this morning. 

Everyone was already sitting down, and I took my seat as Miss Peregrine stood up. She cleared her throat, as if trying to get everyone's attention, despite the fact that no one was talking anyways. We were all too scared and curious, anyways.

"Good morning, everyone," Miss Peregrine started. She didn't wait for a response, and instead, kept talking. "Because of the new information given to us by Miss Avocet, I will be establishing a soft lock down for everyone's protection. No one is to leave this house without my permission, even if you were to just go to the back garden. I will be having two of you at a time on guard by the front and back doors, and if anyone were to find someone walking towards this house, even if they are peculiar like our friend Mr Portman, I want you to ring the bell that I have put up in the front room. This will notify me that someone is coming, and do not open the door until I am there. Does everyone understand?"

No one said a word, but we all silently agreed. Miss Peregrine had never been this stern since, well, since Victor and Heather died. We all just looked around the room at each other, trying to get someone to say something before we would have to do it ourselves. Because not even Enoch or Horace were complaining, which was a scary thing all to itself.

"Good," Miss Peregrine finally said. "I will tell you when you will be posted to watch, a day before you are scheduled, with today as that exception. But do know that just because you are being kept here, doesn't mean you still can't be on your best behavior."

I waited for her to say something else to top it all off, but she didn't. Instead, The Bird sat back down in her chair, and began eating the food in front of her. Emma did, too, and I didn't even notice that food was on the table beforehand. It didn't matter, though, since I wasn't in the mood to eat, anyways.