Hope (Enoch O'Connor x Reader)

Chapter 4: A whole new world, with only one thing here to see!

"But Hugh cheated!" Exclaims Milliard.

"Fine, then. Since you are so adamant that you 'smashed' them, do it again. This time I will watch the whole thing without getting distracted and give points accordingly. Okay?"

"Deal." Says Emma, cracking her knuckles, ready for a fight.

"But they cheated." Milliard says sadly to me.

"It's okay." I say to him with a smile. "I have a plan. And a secret weapon."

The game begins and Milliard starts with the ball. He does a heap of fancy soccer tricks to evade the others and then passes the ball to me. Horace watches from his spot under the tree, not missing a beat. I dribble the ball, swerve around Emma and head for their goal. Behind me, I hear the buzz of multiple bees following me. I quickly shape shift, my skin flipping over, to create a new item of clothing on my body. A full length bee net. I continue to run as the bees swarm around me, but none finding a way to infiltrate my new armor against Hugh's peculiarity. I hear a loud, "No fair!" behind me but keep on running. Then, I stop and kick the ball straight into the goal.

"SCORE!!" Horace yells. "Y/N and Milliard win!!"

Milliard and I shake hands with Emma and Hugh, while Horace teases Hugh about how he didn't 'smash us' like he promised. Emma and I say goodbye, then walk on to where Fiona is tending to the garden. We ask her if we can help and she assigns us jobs. I rake the dead leaves off of the veggie patch and Emma scoops them into a bag, all while Fiona grows some flowers until their pretty buds open and face the sun.

We do this for a while until the front door of the house opens and a tall boy with black hair walks out. He is the same boy from the cave. Once Emma sees him, she drops the bag of leaves and runs towards him, talking excitedly. I get introduced to him, Jake, who is apparently 'visiting' the loop. I can tell Emma clearly wants some alone time with this Jake fellow, so I tell her that she can go spend some time with him for a while and that I'll do stuff with the other kids until dinner. She runs off with Jake and I continue to garden with Fiona.

"How else can I help you? I'm finished raking up the leaves." I ask her after a while.

"Well, if you can help me grow some of these flowers, that'd be great, thanks!" She replies with a smile, joking around with me. I smile back at her, then, I become her. I shape shift into her and start to grow the flowers. She stops her work and looks at me, amazed.

"Wow! I didn't know you could actually grow the flowers with me!" She says, shocked.

"It's part of my peculiarity." I tell her. "If I shape shift into someone who is a peculiar, I can also use their peculiarity. I basically become them when I shape shift. Like, not actually become them, obviously, I mean, I'm still me, but it is like I am wearing a really detailed costume that looks exactly like them. And if they have a peculiarity, in a way, the costume also has that peculiarity and I can use it if I wish. Do you know what I mean? It's really hard to try to explain to someone."

"Yeah. I think I get it." She says and smiles at me. We continue to grow flowers together till there are no more seeds left. I go inside and see Miss Peregrine caring for Miss Avocet. Miss Avocet is looking better, but she still has many injuries on her body. I hope she gets well soon.

"Hello Miss Peregrine."

"Why, hello there, Y/N!"

"Thank you very much for caring for Miss Avocet and letting me stay in your loop. I really appreciate it. To show my gratitude, if you want, I can go and hunt for tonight's dinner, get some fresh meat for the children."

"I don't know. The woods around our house are quite dangerous."

"It's just... well... we had a forest in our loop and it was one of my chores to get some fresh meat for dinner."

Miss Peregrine looks at me, making her decision. "Okay. Only if you're sure you can handle it. Thank you Y/N. My crossbow is in the Parlor if you wish to use it."

"Thank you Miss Peregrine, but I can use my own weapons." I say, stretching out my arm as my skin shifts in a wave to create a large wooden object rested on top of my arm. I pull off the object, a wooden bow and create an arrow using the same method.

"If I may, how do you create objects out of your skin?" Miss Peregrine asks, intrigued.

"The cells in my body regenerate every second. I can create objects using my flesh that can be removed from my body due to my genetic makeup. Because I can make an object out of my flesh, for example, my bow here, my cells can reproduce to compensate for the cells I lose when make objects that detach from my body."

"How do you know that?" Miss Peregrine asks.

"My friend from my old loop was a scientist. He once wanted to see what my cells did to help me shape shift, so he took a sample of blood and discovered all of that information." I bite my lip, thinking about where he is now. In the dark pit of a hollow's stomach.

"Interesting. Okay, go catch some dinner for us. The woods are out the front door and to the right of the house. Don't stray too far from the house, though. I don't want you getting lost." She tells me. I leave her to care for Miss Avocet and follow the directions she gave me.

I hunt for a while, until I see a young boar. A young, wild thing, full of life and yearning to learn new knowledge about the big wide world around it. And now, I am taking its life away from it. The one and only life it is ever going to get, I am extinguishing it. Just like blowing out a candle. Just like those hollows in my loop. I take a deep breath, then shoot the pig right between the eyes without another moments' hesitation. We all need to eat somehow.

I carry the boar back to the house and find Emma and Jake sitting on the front steps. Emma asks me why I am carting a dead pig around and I tell her that we all gotta eat somehow.

"Say hi to dinner." I tell her.

"I ain't talking to a dead pig!" She exclaims.

"Oh well, your loss. So, do you guys have any pets in this loop, which I can feed the entrails of the pig to?"

"Um no, no pets, why, don't you feel like being wasteful of your little piggy friend?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"Talk to Enoch. He uses animal hearts for his... work, I guess. Talk to him, he won't waste the little piggy heart." Emma tells me as Jake physically shudders at the mention of Enoch's name.

"Oh. I don't think he really wants to see me, of all people."

"Trust me Y/N, I don't think he really likes to see anyone, to be honest." Jake says, looking a little unnerved. "And I don't think that anyone else wants to see him either."

Oh well. I ain't gonna waste the life I have just taken. So, I take a deep breath and ask the question.

"Which room is his?"

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Hello, I'm back!! Sooooo, what did ya think of the chapter? Just a shout out to Book_Keeper5 for adding me to your reading list. I really appreciate you actually considering reading my fanfic. I usually write this more for myself rather than for others to read it so I find it really cool someone is reading. Comment below with any criticism –good or bad— and I'll see you all next time. Stay tuned coz next chapter you are going into Enoch's lair –I mean *cough, cough* sorry— His room!! This is gonna be interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh yeah, just a question...  DID YOU TOTALLY SING THE TITLE?!?!  I did.  Oh, how I love Aladdin.  A whole new world, a hundred thousand things to see!  Oh god, already getting carried away... ANYWAY...  Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

~Tamika