A strange peculiarity || Enoch O'Connor

chapter thirty six

The group raced into the next room to find Jacob, Emma and the remaining ymbrynes fighting against Caul and an army of wights, Jacob as it turned out had some sort of control over the hollows and was using them against the wights, and it seemed the group was just in time to help in the fight. 

The odds were not in their favour, but that didn't seem to matter, they were together, united and strong.

Some of the wights still could use their peculiarities, some had weapons, but they fought sporadically, not as a unit like the children and ymbrynes did and that could possibly make the difference. It was not the first time the group had fought alongside each other and hopefully it would be the last.

Jeanette and Enoch stuck close together, his peculiarity was no use in this particular battle scenario, and so he was fending wights that got too close to them with the broken leg of a chair. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the girl, who was firing quick blasts of pink light at wights and what she hoped were hollows. Occasionally she even hit her mark, although it would take a lot more than just the one hit for them to make a dent in what was quite an army Caul had gathered.

"Enoch, we are most definitely outnumbered." Jeanette told him over the shouts of Jacob directing them to the hollows and other such battle sounds.

"I know Jenny." He replied, throwing a piece of debris at what he hoped was an oncoming hollow, successfully diverting it away from them. "I know."

"Enoch if this is it-" Jeanette began, narrowly missing a half-broken chair as it came flying towards them.

"Don't talk like that." He replied, grabbing her hand with his free hand. "We'll win, we have to."

"But if we don't, oh Enoch the time you and I have spent together has been-" she began, cut of by being hit in the leg by a ball of fire, she let out a scream, drowned out by the noise of the others. He caught her before she hit the ground, moving them quickly to the edge of the room, where he could protect her easily.

"Jenny, may I?" He asked gently, the skirt of her dress went down to her mid-calf and after putting out the flames Enoch pulled the scorched fabric up to her knee to reveal the burns on her leg. She took off her shawl and passed it to him.

"Use this." She told him. The article of clothing wasn't the cleanest after their time on the road, but it would bind her leg until they could find more substantial medical supplies.

"I don't want to hurt you." Enoch hesitated, he could tell she was already in pain and didn't want to add to it, not least because of what they were already facing.

Jeanette smiled softly and touched his hand gently, her hands were shaking due to the shock of her injury, but she tried to keep her calm, even with tears in her eyes. "I'll be alright, but I need you to do this for me Enoch, so we can help our friends."

Nodding, Enoch binded her leg as gently as he could, and after a minute of waiting, to make sure she was up for it, he gently helped her onto her feet, advising her to keep a hold onto his arm, to help keep pressure off her leg. Together they returned to battle.

~~~
Backed into a corner, but together and after having managed to whittle down Caul's army significantly, the peculiar children and ymbrynes stood firm against the wights that threatened their existence. All they knew is that they had to stop them from reaching the library, for if they reached the library they would be unstoppable.

Caul and Miss Cuckoo were stood at the front of the group of wights, sneering at them. They seemed sure of their own victory, even before it had happened and that was somewhat unnerving to the group. The wights seemed to have a plan and it seemed to be working.

The wights launched their attack, the group barely having time to counter attack or protect themselves before being hit. They were taken by surprise.

Cries of pain filled the air, encouraging the unhurt to launch another attack with a vicious passion for revenge. They were sick of people hurting their family and ready to make them stop.

Jeanette and Stephan, who seemed like they were in some sort of conversation, nodded to Aimee, who smiled back, although she didn't seem sure. They were going to try something they had never tried before.

Aimees peculiarity allowed her to hide in shadows, and what Stephan and Jeanette had wondered, was could she hide all of them, making the wights unable to see them and giving them the upper hand. It was worth a try at least, although they knew it would not be easy for her, but she was willing to try, and that was enough.

Slowly, but surely the group were enveloped in the shadows, they could see the wights, but the wights could not see them, it was the perfect plan.

"Ready everyone?" Jeanette asked them, the group murmured a reply. Most were injured, but all willing to carry on and defeat the wights.

They began their attack, with much more confidence this time. The wights were scattered and confused, making it easier to get a direct hit on them. And they started to go down.

They could hear the wights frustrations at he situation, this clearly hadn't been in their plan and they did not like it. Yet they still attacked, and even blind they still managed to make some hits, but they were going down faster now.

After what seemed like hours, only Caul and Miss Cuckoo were left. The peculiars had managed to eliminate the wights and hollows and had only two people in their way now.

The group dropped their shield, and faced the two, tired and in pain, but together.

"Well that was clever." Caul laughed, looking at the rag-tag group with amusement. "But you can't stop us from getting to the library."

"Actually, we can." Jacob said, surprising them all. He had recently found out he could use his own peculiarity to control the hollows, as well as see them and had kept one back as a precaution.

Needless to say the hollow was glad of a meal at last, and when it had destroyed the two, the group finished it off.

"We did it everyone." Emma said quietly, the group only had a moment of cheer before the ground started shaking.

"Whats going on?" Klaus asked, he glanced at Josef and Horace, who looked as concerned as he did.

"The loop is collapsing, whatever they did to it, it can't hold itself up anymore, its collapsing and taking the library with it." Evangeline told them.

"Everyone, run!" Miss Peregrine instructed, as they ran, the buildings began to collapse, and in the distance, they saw the library collapse, a landslide of water from the spring inside heading straight for them, they couldn't out run it.