Invisible • Millard Nullings • MPHFPC

t e n

t e n - anna's pov

It's mid afternoon and i'm sat in their massive library, reading. The sun is shining brightly outside and some of the children are playing football out there, but for the past fifty years I've only had three books to read and I've been wanting to read something different for years.

I heard shuffling outside the door and looked up. At the door is a girl i remember to be Bronwyn. She walks in and sits beside me. I turn towards her and she starts talking. 

"Are you alright? Are you feeling home sick? Everybody really wants to get to know you. They are so excited that there is somebody else living here. We haven't had a new person since... since..."

"Since who?"

"We are not really allowed to speak about it really. Emma gets quite sad when hes brought up. Her and Abe kind of, well, had something."

So his name was Abe.

"If you don't mind me asking, What happened? I mean, why isn't he here anymore?"

Bronwyn shook her head and smiled. She didn't seem to be upset about me asking about Abe. 

"Abe wanted to do something to help. So, he joined the army and went fighting the monsters. He didn't come back after. He wanted to live a normal life, so he went and moved to America, fell in love and made a family. It was ages ago. Most of us were never angry at him for leaving, but Emma was. She's not anymore. She's just sad now. We all miss him, but Emma does most of all."

I could see that Bronwyn was lost in thought so I nudge her.

"Why don't we play a game. Twenty one questions? You start."

Bronwyn looks up and smiles at me again. She nods and stands up, walking towards one of the many shelves of books and skims her hand over the spines.

"What do you think of everybody here?" Bronwyn says, turning to me.

"Everybody seems really nice. I haven't really spoken to anybody ever before, and I've only briefly spoken to them, but most of them are really nice."

Bronwyn looks at me pointedly and walks back over.

"Most of them?"

"Well... I haven't really spoken to Millard have I? I just kind of freaked out over his nakedness. I mean i really didn't care if he was nice until he had some clothes on! How can you just let him walk around like that?"

"We can't see him. We don't really think about him being naked around us as neither him nor us can see him."

"I wonder how it is, not being able to see yourself when you look down, or when you look in the mirror..."

When we do things we see ourselves do it. We see our hands write, see our arms stretch out to grab something, see our legs walk. But he can't see that. He sees a pen float across the paper, writing words he wants to put down, he sees something being picked up, but not what is picking it up. He knows he is walking forward, but he can't see himself do it, he just moves. He can feel the pen in his hand, he knows he is the one moving it across the page, but he can't see his hand holding it. It must be so weird to know you're there, but not see yourself. It must be weird to be Invisible.

But now someone can see him.

~

"Anna? Anna? Are you alright Anna?"

I shake my head and murmur incoherent words about not wanting to get up. I try to turn over, but i must of reached the end of whatever i was laying on, as i fall to the ground instead. I hear people laughing above me and i groan. 

I sit up and open my eyes, seeing Bronwyn, Hugh and Miss Peregrine gathered around me. I heard the door open and Fiona walked in with some medicine and water. I see the younger kids outside the door looking worriedly in. They look confused about what happened and why i'm on the floor. Olive has taken her shoes off so she look through the window properly.

Miss Peregrine tells me to have a drink and sit on the sofa i fell off. Only now do i realize that i'm still in the library. Whenever i did this at the menagerie i would wake up in my bed, no matter where i passed out.

"does this happen a lot Anna?"

"Kind of. Sometimes I would randomly pass out  five times a week and other times i won't pass out for months. We never worked out why i would pass out. I'm never really tired or dehydrated or malnourished when i pass out so we had no idea." 

When I pass out, I don't really remember what I'd just done. I remember speaking to Bronwyn about Abe and carrying on speaking, but i don't know what about.

"Bronwyn, what were we talking about before i passed out?"

I turn to Bronwyn and she looks quite worried. She turns to Miss Peregrine, who looks deep in thought. She looks back at Bronwyn and motions her to tell me. They both turn to me, Bronwyn still looking worried, Miss Peregrine looking deep in thought again.

"I'm alright, you know. I'm used to it."

That didn't seem to help Bronwyn - it just seemed to make her more worried about me.

"What were we talking about?"

"We were playing twenty one questions. I asked about how you felt about everyone. It led to you talking about Millard and how you wonder what its like to be invisible. You just kind of sat there deep in thought and then you suddenly passed out."

I looked at Bronwyn confused.

"Why did we talk about Millard?"

"Someone was talking about me?"

We all turned around to see Millard stood there leaning on a bookshelf.

Well, I was the only one who could actually see him.

He was stark naked again.