Clay and Blood | Enoch O'Connor

Children

A house for peculiar children, that was what Grandpa Abe used to call it. For the longest time tho I think I actually believed it. Going to school as I narrated these stories to the other kids in my class didn't exactly earn me much popularity I would say. From that day in elementary school I was known as 'Jake Portman, the guy who believed in floating girls and in invisible boys'

My grandpa Abe used to always describe all these children in great detail. Emma Bloom the girl lighter than Air was always his favorite one. Then there was Horace, the guy who could project his future telling dreams and who was a 16 year old boys dressed like a 40 year old man. Then Bronwyn and Victor, super strong sibling who both possessed the strength of 10 men. The twins...well I'm not sure what their peculiarity was...grandpa always chose to ignore that detail. Hugh Apiston, the boy with bees living inside of him.

Millard Nulligans, the invisible boy. Claire the little girl with a back mouth? Never understood what that meant. Fiona who with her peculiarity could grow any plant, Olive Elephanta the Pyrokinetic in love with Enoch O'Connor, the dead riser. And lastly Dalila Holmes, the winter caller. He was always very hesitant to even speak about her, he always seemed to be very careful to not spill too much information.

What he always loved to show me about her tho were the letters she had sent him during the war. They were written in an impeccable cursive and they were always so poetic. He always described her as a perfect snowflake that could never melt but could always burn.

To be honest 'impeccable' was always the word he used to describe her. Although the way that he talked about her had nothing to do with the way he talked about Emma. When he talked about Emma there was always so much fun, admiration, and so much love. When he talked about Dalila it always seemed like he was describing a perfectly handwritten letter with no wrinkles no tears no smudges of ink, no imperfections. Which was always of contrast to when he would tell me about all of the adventures that her and Enoch O'Connor went on.

He told me that they were always attached to the hip and that you couldn't get them apart not even for a split second. 'Oh how mad would Miss. Peregrin get when they would be late for a chore because they were too busy making epic snow battles' he would alway say. 'Dalila created the snow and Enoch would animate two homunculi and made them drown each other in the snow'
He also always used to mention how in the house they were all always so close and how they would always play together as a group. All these stories and here I am in my Psychologist's studio, fully unable to recognize fiction from reality...but that letter...that one letter seemed so...real.

Dear Abe,
I could never describe the pain and the sorrow this house is going through with you being gone. With that being said I wanted to remind you that the brave are the only ones capable of surviving the cold winters. Be brave Abraham Portman, the snow will always work in your favor even if I won't be there to make sure it won't freeze becoming Ice.

May the winter always be with you in the warm springs

-Dalila Holmes, September 3rd 1943