The Thirteenth

Part 1

September 3, 1943 was a wonderful sunny day. Miss Peregrine was tidying up the house together with Fiona and Olive. Jake and Emma where busy with the baby squirrel while Hugh and Millard where playing football outside. Bronwyn and Claire's giggles could be heard from the open window. The girls were enjoying themselves on the swings. Suddenly one of the twins ran into the room screaming something in the language that only his brother and Miss Peregrine understood. The boy saw the air as if it was an emergency and as it appeared later the situation was totally awful.

"What?! Where?!" Miss Peregrine dropped the broom and hurried outside.

"Miss P., I took him out but I think he isn't breathing," Horace, soaked to his skin, bend over the little boy's body but wasn't brave enough to take the mask from boy's face.

"Thank you, Horace. Let me see. Olive, take Horace inside. He needs to change." said the ymbryne totally horrified by the picture in front of her. "Others turn around if you don't want to turn into stone!" She ordered strictly but deep inside she didn't want to be so harsh on kids at the moment.

In one motion she took the mask off twin's head. His gray skin became greyish blue. The boy didn't breath. Miss Peregrine pricked his nose and blew some air into his mouth. She repeated it several times together with the cardiac massage.

"Come on, Thomas. Please, breathe, please," she whispered doing the CPR.

The other twin looked at them desperately not knowing what to do. He whimpered, screeched and scratched and was obviously terrified by the thought that he could lose his brother. Minutes went by in a slow motion still every second that passed was irreversible for a seven year old lying on the grass near the pond. But Alma wouldn't be an ymbryne if she gave up so easily. She was crowned with success. Thomas coughed vomiting water and everything that he had in his stomach, his lungs filled with air and he opened his snake-like eyes looking straight at Miss Peregrine.

"Thomas, my little boy!" She hugged him gently still giving him the possibility to get rid of water in his lungs and stomach. He screeched something in return for this motherly hug and put his arms around woman's neck. Joseph also joined this family embrace.

"OK, Thomas. Let's go and get you changed until you caught some drastic cold in these wet clothes." She took the boy in her arms and strolled back to the house. "Could you please, close your eyes, darling? Unfortunately, I can't turn stone into human beings back." She whispered in his ear. The boy obediently closed his eyes putting his arms even tighter around her neck but she didn't mind.

Miss Peregrine was the only ymbryne of the kind that wasn't afraid of peculiarities of her young charges. Olive's fire didn't burn her, she wasn't afraid of Enoch's puppets or Hugh's bees which could get really violent sometimes and even stung her once or twice but she never complained. The same was with the twins. Their peculiarity to turn living things into statues didn't work on her. That's why Alma took these two from another loop to make the life of Miss Kite easier.

"Emma, please, stay with twins. They are still in a shock. Olive, I would appreciate if you find our mysterious Enoch and bring him to me. I would like to know what happened on his watch. Jake, can you keep an eye on the others outside?" She walked downstairs giving instructions on her way to older children who were overwhelmed by everything that occurred twenty minutes ago.

"Sure, Miss P.," said the older boy and went outside.

"Horace, thank you so much for being such a brave boy!" She came to the boy and kissed him in the forehead. "How do you feel?"

"My suit is ruined but on the whole I'm fine. How are the twins?" a fair-haired boy asked a little bit ashamed by such careful attention to his humble personality.

"Still terrified but they will be fine. Thank you, my little hero." She smiled a warm smile at him and Horace felt proud at least once in his life. "I think I can recover your suit to its initial state."

"I'll go and see how the twins are," said the boy smiling back at Miss Peregrine.

"Just one more question."

"Yes, Miss Peregrine."

"Where was Enoch when everything happened?" She stared at the boy trying to see right into his soul.

"He grumbled something about going to the seaside because he saw a new lizard yesterday there. He told me to take care of the twins." Horace half stated half apologized.

"And you did it very well, Mr. Somnusson. I'm very proud of you." She smiled once again and went to the bathroom to leave soaked twin's clothes there.

"Oh, Enoch, there you are!" exclaimed Olive very disappointed by his behavior.

The older boy didn't even turn his head because he was dissecting the poor lizard to take out its heart.

"Enoch, do you hear me!" The red-headed girl repeated. Nevertheless, the boy vouchsaved no reply whatsoever. This really angered the girl and the next thing Enoch was looking at was the burning remnants of what was left of the lizard.

"Why on earth did you do that! Do you know how hard it is to find any good lizards on this damn island?!" He shouted at Olive which she accepted without wincing.

"I don't care about lizards, toads or other reptiles that you are going to kill. One of the twins nearly drowned in the pond while you were away. So, believe me the bird is not just angry at you, she is infuriated. She sent me to find you. I wish you good luck because nothing would help you right now," the girl concluded and went away leaving the teen to think about the trouble he was in. "I would already be at home if I were you, of course, because the more you think the worse it would be."

Unwillingly Enoch stood up and pottered along the path after the girl. It seemed to him that sometimes Olive could be as strict as Miss Peregrine. He wanted neither of them to treat him as he was a five year old but today it was his fault and he understood that completely.

"Is he alright?" He asked Olive in a hoarse voice because his throat became absolutely dry.

"Yes, thank God, Miss P. knows how to do a CPR!" stated the girl feeling sorry for the older boy, though.

Going to the house Enoch thought about his horrible fate. At the age of eleven neighbors set on fire their house after they have found out how the son of the undertaker profanes the bodies of the dead by stealing their hearts in order to revive some puppets or vice-verse reviving dead people just out of curiosity. When his father found out about this strange ability of Enoch to revive the dead it seemed appealing to him. He thought he could do some profit of this. However, dead bodies were dead bodies no matter what you did to them they were bond to deteriorate and become the dust. That's why the whole idea didn't work from the start and their family even had to move to another part of Britain to flee away from angry and disappointed relatives. Still, Enoch's ability didn't go anywhere. So, he needed practice and he found it by helping his father with the dead. During the day he took care of those cadavers and at night he practiced his abilities. The bigger the heart was the longer was the life of an inanimate object. For two years everything went quite good until one curious boy hid in the vault where the undertaker kept the deceased. Of course, the child was terrified by Enoch's tricks. The next day the whole village came to his father. Without looking into the matter they accused his family in witchcraft and set their house on fire. Luckily, the villagers let them leave, but after this terrifying episode his father told Enoch to go away and never come back, which he did not wanting his brothers and sisters to get into trouble because of him. His mother was afraid of her own son since the day she discovered about his strange power. So, he couldn't say that she even liked him as she was always irritated when Enoch was around and tried to make the siblings treat their brother as a weird one. That's how his lonely life began. He begged for a crust of bread going from one village to another a little eleven-year old boy alone in the whole world. If in summer and autumn the existence was bearable than in winter it became totally awful. He could vividly remember the day when local boys in a small town wanted to mock at him. They surrounded him and started pushing the boy from one to another. He tried to stop them, tried to get out of the circle but the punches became more violent. Enoch could feel blood running from his nose, when suddenly they heard a strict low voice of the woman, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She had a huge bag on her shoulder and she scared those boys to death by saying that she would call a policeman immediately. Miss Peregrine wore a long grey coat with fur collar. Snowflakes dropped on her cute hat and she gave Enoch her gloved hand to help him stand up. The woman stopped the bleeding and gave him some sandwiches to eat, which he swallowed like a hungry beast each in three bites.

"What's your name?" she asked him curiously staring with those big unblinking eyes at the hungry boy.

"Enoch, Ma'am." He answered between the bites.

"Do you have a surname?" She couldn't help looking at his hungry eating habits.

"O'Connor, Ma'am." He replied with full mouth which sounded really funny.

"I'm Alma Peregrine and it's Miss." She presented herself. "Will you help me do some shopping Mr. Connor? I have so much to buy that I'm sure I'll be in need of such a gentleman as you are to help me carry everything home, if you don't mind, of course." Miss P. asked politely.

He didn't mind at all even to go on a ferry with her. She was the first person that year, who wasn't humiliating him or trying to get rid of him. So, he was eager to follow her anywhere even to hell. Enoch's heart beat faster and faster the minute they came to the door of the beautiful mansion. It was already evening and he didn't have time to get back to the mainland. Now he was hesitating what to do. In his ragged clothes he wasn't sure this pretty lady would invite him to stay at least for the night. Instead, when a ten-year old blonde girl opened the door Miss Peregrine asked Enoch to get the bags inside and closed the door after herself. Another boy older than Enoch took bags from Miss Peregrine and showed Enoch the way to the kitchen.

"Victor Bruntley," the older boy shook Enoch's hand in the kitchen.

"Enoch O'Connor," Enoch shook Victor's hand without any enthusiasm.

"Thanks God you are a boy because I started to think that I'm living in a hen-coop! We have another boy but he's six and not much to talk to."

"Mr. Bruntley, I'd rather you didn't speak about our loop in such a scornful tone. The girls living here don't deserve to be spoken about in this way!" Miss Peregrine reprimanded the older boy. "I remember not long ago it was you, Mr. Bruntley, who asked me to take care of you and your sister. Where is she by the way?"

"Playing with Millard in the nursery."

"And who is watching them, I wonder?" She asked raising one eyebrow.

"Emma," was the reply.

"Emma opened the door a minute ago and is now in the living room sorting out some of the purchase," saying so Miss Peregrine flew away from the kitchen into the nursery.

This memory made Enoch smile. Where are those good old days when he was a 12 year-old boy who knew nothing about time loops, ymrynes and peculiar children?

To be continued…