Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

Library of Souls

A large dust storm crawled over the hills in front of us, towards our area. I just assumed it was dust, until a spec of it hit my bare shoulder, and burned my skin.

"Shit!" I swore. "Is that ash?"

"Stay where you are!" Jacob commanded, then covered his face with his hand. "It'll pass!"

"Everyone breathe through your shirts!" Emma said.

Hot ash kept hitting us, and just like Jacob said, it passed in a matter of minutes. When it all had died down a bit, I opened my eyes, and saw a large group of burly men heading towards us from the other side of the gap. They marched in unison in a cloud of fog, and sung like a haunting (but lovely) men's choir as they approached. I would have assumed they were part of a large musical if it wasn't for the fact that this was reality and not a fictional story.

"Hark to the clinking of the hammers..."

Each man was armed with either a shovel or hammer. One man in the back raised his mallet above his head, and thrust it back down with a thwack! I wasn't quite sure what it was the man was hitting, until a voice screamed in return. It was abuse by hammers and singing. Was there any other way to go?

"Hark to the driving of the nails!" The voices sang again.

"Gah, my legs!" The faceless voice complained.

"What fun to build a gallows...."

"Let me go, let me go!" Another voice complained.

"The cure for all that ails."

"Please, no more. I give up!" A third voice called.

Our friendly baritones came out of the cloud of smoke, each one holding a wiggling wight. The group was maybe only ten feet away from us, and a cloaked man emerged from the crowd. He had a heavy black hood over his face, and came over to us with literal open arms. It was like a friendly grim reaper! Was he here to finally take me out of my misery?

"Morning, all!" The man called to us cheerfully with a gruff voice. "Did you lose something?"

Emma clapped her hands together and gasped. "Sharon, you brilliant man!"

Sharon? Like, the ferryman who carried souls to the underworld? I mean, this dude wore a black cloak and came out of the mist with some unlucky souls. It was ironic, almost, that this dude brought us back the wights when he easily could have killed them himself. However, he did seem to be bros with Emma, so he was cool with me.

One wight wriggled out of his captor's grasp, and began running away. I thought that the baritone would have ran after him, but instead, he calmly selected a hammer from his belt, and through it at the wight. The thing went 2 billion miles an hour, I swear, and would have completely knocked the wight's head off his shoulders if he didn't duck. The wight kept running, but then the road underneath him gave way and split open, as a streak of yellow fire came out and burnt him to a crisp.

Hot damn!

Everyone cheered at the sight of it all, as if it was a theatric performance. It was perfect timing, and the wight deserved everything bit of it. Even I clapped and whooped along with the other kids.

Sharon chuckled. "You see!" he said. "The acre itself wants to be rid of them."

"That's wonderful," Jacob said, unfazed by it all. "but what about Caul?"

"I agree," Emma said as she reached for Jacob's hand. How sweet. "None of these victories will matter if we can't catch him. Right, Miss P?"

Emma glanced over her shoulder for Miss Peregrine, but she wasn't there. I looked around our misfit crowd, but our headmistress wasn't with us. Instant fear and adrenaline started pumping through my veins when I realized she was gone. Not after everything we had done to save her!