Arcane | Enoch O'Connor

Eleven - "Can we use face masks?"

Days began to drag and they became planned out. A part of my daily routine was watching Millard and Hugh cheat at football as I sat beneath the great oak beside Horace. We both shared a love of books so today we decided to pick a book for each other to read. Horace had given me one of his all time favourites, a older fiction novel called The Heart is a Lonely Hunter whilst I had given him The Fault in Our Stars. Usually I would read for pleasure, but today, unlike every other day, had a twist and we had a reading competition. I truly believed I would finish the book first.

The semi-permanent, sour face stared at me from the window as I glared back. I don't exactly remember what happened a few days ago, or what I had said to make Enoch grumpy but I was only talking about my possibly dead dad. I understand both of his were dead by now and he only has Miss Peregrine but Enoch has had to lived with that for many, many decades whereas this is raw to me. I can't deny that I have missed talking to him in the past three days though. Even during meal times, he would keep to himself, sharing snide remarks every so often.

"Done." Horace clapped the book shut, beaming about his victory. It had only been a few hours! I pouted realizing I was drawn away from the remaining few pages of my book because of my train of thought. The stylish boy opened his mouth to say something but abruptly closed it. Raising my brows, I practically made him tell me, despite the amount of times he repeated the fact that Miss Peregrine told him that he couldn't and shouldn't.

"My dad, I know, he might be dead. We can't lose hope, Fiona came back, didn't she? So will Dad." I was being to lose hope, starting to believe I had lost both parents. My blue eyes, a pair identical to Dad's, flickered towards the dead-riser's window where he no longer stood. Instead, he was treading towards me with three cups. Horace released a breath of relief even though he knew I would get the truth and answers I wanted. "Sorry for interrupting, please continue."

"Grace, darling, I'm quite sure you don't want to know..." Horace trailed off. At this point, Enoch had joined us and was intensely listening. "I had a dream and well, Jake is dead."

For the rest of the day, I talked only to Miss Peregrine and Enoch, so there was no surprise when Millard spotted me curled up on Enoch's bed as he worked on his homunculi. We were doing our own thing so Millard plopped two books on my bed; the original Tales of the Peculiar and a rewritten one. He proudly presented the rewritten one, stroking his engraved name on the front cover.

"I want you to read this, a new updated and annotated version by yours truly. 'Tales of the Peculiar is a collection of our most beloved folklore, passed down from generation to generation since time immemorial, each story is a part of history, part fairy tale, and part moral lesson aimed at young peculiars' Now enjoy!" And with that, he walked out, his flat cap bobbing down the stairs.

I furrowed my eyebrows as a recurring question circulated my brain.

"Why do people think of you as a..." I had caught Enoch's attention in seconds while I watched him crane his neck. The clay doll collapsed on the desk alongside many others when Enoch walked over and sat down next to me, "a bad guy? Of course , if you don't mind me asking."

"You trust me meaning I trust you so I'll tell you the full story." Sorrow flashed over Enoch's eyes, inhaling a sharp breath. "I was one of Miss Peregrine's first wards, alongside two girls I considered my little sisters. Bear in mind, I was nicer than I am now... not as dark, if you get me. The girls were Marcie and Charlotte, and they were similar ages. Marcie was a dark haired girl with emerald eyes whereas Charlotte had blue eyes and long, strawberry blonde hair. Special they were. I would always protect them, well try my best to. When the Bird was rescuing other peculiars or visiting her sister ymbryne, I would babysit them both, feed them, play with them, read for them, et cetera."

I felt so sympathetic, and I sat there hopelessly, unsure what to do.

"It was about fifty or sixty years ago, Marcie had persisted about living with her common family in the countryside. Her school wasn't that far away and since she was seven years of age, she regularly caught the school bus, where she was snatched away by wights. Heartbreaking to hear the news of her death, I protected Charlotte more scared of the consequences if I let her out of my sight. 1985 it was. I had told her why I hated this place, teaching her about the world outside of the loop and boy was she fascinated. Charlotte had always been a wanderer so she slipped out of the loop and into the village. She couldn't explain herself, who she was or where she came from so they shipped her off to the mainland. Time caught up with her; aged thirty five years in just two days. Miss Peregrine couldn't get there quick enough and I presume Lottie is still with Miss Nightjar and Miss Thrush's loop." A few tears tumbled down Enoch's cheek and he was quick to wipe them. "I had lost both my sisters because I wasn't careful enough. If I hadn't have told Lottie, I'm pretty sure she would be here right now. The guilt and sorrow was to much for me, so this is all a facade. Every single night, my thoughts controlled me, forcing me to think the rest of them thought I killed them both."

"You've protected me and I'm still here, aren't I?" I reassured him and the corners of his mouth briefly twisted up until it returned to his dull expression.

"You're gonna leave like the rest of them; Abe, Jake and now you. It's Portman family tradition." He frowned, voice laced with sarcasm. "What if you die too?"

"Enoch, I'm not going anywhere." I cupped his face, bringing his face closer to mine as I pressed my lips against his in a longed for kiss. My heart fluttered and I found myself grinning, still connected. It felt magical and he pulled away gasping for air. "I promise."

"Good, I can't bear to let you go." We jumped up, hearing a crash from Emma's room. Scattered across the floorboards were several packets of gold peel face masks. Olive and Millard held them high, reading the small, printed words. I saw Horace and Emma's face light up as Hugh, Fiona and Bronwyn helped pick up the rest of my belongings that fell out of my bag.

"Grace?" After they saw the mischievous grin plastered on my face, we all turned to Enoch with the open packets. The Scottish boy backed away slowly but my strides were bigger and I pulled him back into the circle we had formed. "Face mask time!"

For half an hour, we all sat in the girly room, Miss Peregrine included, with shimmering facial masks enjoying ourselves as a family. Something I had missed a lot.