Y/N's POV
"I know how we can be sure that he was killed by a hollow," Enoch claims.
"And how's that?" Millard asked.
"We'll ask him."
Y/N's POV
A small team was formed, we were going to ask him how he died. Jacob, Emma, Bronwyn, Enoch and I were all going. Alex and Millard were staying behind to make sure nothing bad happened here. We had to bribe Millard not to rat us out, but after that we were ready to go.
Enoch, Bronwyn, Alex, and I were waiting up on a flat part of a roof we got to from a little window in the attic. We waited until Emma and Jacob got out there. Once they arrived, it was time for us to go ask some dead guy if an invisible monster killed him.
What could possibly go wrong?
"How are we going to get down?" Jacob asked Emma.
"Easy. I'll float you all down. Who's ready for a game of parachute?" Emma replies, a smile on her face.
She tied a rope around her waist that Fiona was holding on to from a window on the second floor. She waved up at us, Emma and Jacob got some of the other kids along with the plan.
"You go," Enoch yelled at Jacob.
"Me?" he asked, backing away from the edge of the roof.
"Just hold onto me and you'll be fine!" Emma exclaimed.
"Well that's easy for you to say! You can't fall!" Jacob snapped.
Emma walked over to him and hugged him. Reluctantly, Jacob hugged her back. Then, Emma floated them down from the roof. After Emma floated up again, she got Bronwyn. Then Enoch, so it was Alex and I left. Alex used her telekinesis to float Emma's lead shoes down to the ground. I hugged Alex before holding onto Emma as she floated down to the ground.
Soon enough, we were standing at the edge of the bog. Enoch handed me something that smelled like something died.
"What is it?" I asked.
He kept handing stuff to the others, the items wrapped in cloth.
"Calm down, it's only a sheep heart. I ain't carrying all of these."
After that, we made out way to the loop entrance. We had just started walking though when Enoch asked, "What if we see someone?"
"Just act normal, I'll tell them you're my friends," Jacob replied.
"What if we see a wight?" Bronwyn asked.
"Run," I replied.
"What if Jacob sees a hollow?" Bronwyn continued.
"In that case, run like the devil's after you," Emma answered.
We followed the path back to the town. It was rainy and wet, wind howling and thunder shaking the ground. Our flashlights were dim, it was hard to see anything. We ran into the town unnoticed. Rain was flooding the streets and everything was soaked. Everyone was inside their warm houses, and we ran down the road without anyone seeing us.
Eventually we made it to the fishmonger's shop, the place the body was in. The door was locked, so Bronwyn simply kicked it in. Jacob led us through the shop, and Enoch grabbed my empty hand that wasn't holding a jar. Enoch was holding one too, but the smell of it didn't bother him as much as it did me.
As we walked into a little ice house, and Enoch asked Jacob which one the guy was in. We all started looking, picking up pieces of ice and digging around. While doing so, Bronwyn and Emma complained about not liking dead things. I can't help but agree, but it's what we have to do if we want to find this guy.
All of a sudden, I heard Bronwyn shriek and we all ran over. There was a hand sticking out of the ice, and I immediately held onto Enoch arm.
"I daresay you found our man," Enoch said, and started to get the ice away from the dead body.
Once it was gone, it relieved something more horrifying than seeing my cousins run around without shirts on. His limbs were twisted together, one green eye was gazing emptily, and half his face was purple. His clothes were ragged, he looked like he had been dragged around through a forest by someone. Or something.
"He's pretty far gone. I'm telling you right now, this might not work," Enoch tells us.
"We have to try!" Bronwyn exclaims.
Enoch started to pull out hearts, and I stood behind him watching. He told everyone to stand back because if he wakes up he won't be happy. I wouldn't blame the guy, if I got murdered and woke up to a bunch of strange kids in a room full of ice, I'd be upset too.
He tried one heart, and it didn't work. It started beating for a second, then stopped, spraying blood around. Enoch threw it to the side, and I picked up Bronwyn and stood there holding her. Emma held on to Jacob's arm as he did it again with the heart that was in my jar. Nothing. Then, he takes the heart from Emma's jar. Again, nothing happened. Finally, he took his jar, the very last one, and put it in.
The heart started shaking and beating.
"Rise up, dead man. Rise up!" Enoch exclaimed.
At first, the body didn't move. Then, it sprung up, and stared at Jacob. We all screamed and jumped back, while Bronwyn buried her head into my neck.
"He sees you!" Enoch cried.
The dead guy held onto Jacob, who looked horrified. He went down to see if the guy, Martin his name was (I overheard Emma say), and put his ear to the man's open jaw. He had clearly said something, but none of us could tell what it was.
"Yes?" Jacob asked Martin.
"I was dead, am dead" the guy croaked.
"Tell me what happened, do you remember?" Jacob asked.
Martin had said something, but none of us could understand. We gave each other confused looks. Jake didn't catch it either because he asked him if he could say it again.
"Who?" questioned Jacob, the response to something I had not heard.
He said something again, I couldn't hear it.
"You mean Oggie? Your uncle?" Jake asked.
"Who did, Martin?" Jacob asked again.
Martin closed his eye and leaned back, and I thought for a moment he was gone. Enoch still held his hand on the heart, and he nodded. It was still beating.
Emma went and asked what he was saying, and Jacob said it sounded like a poem.
"You mean the bog boy? The Old Man?" Jacob asked.
"Send me back. It hurts," I faintly heard Martin say.
Enoch's hand gripped the heart tighter. We were running out of time.
Just then, Jacob said, "a hollowgast did this to him. It's somewhere on the island."
"Ask him where," Enoch said.
After a couple of moments, the guy points to the door.
"Who's there?" a booming voice yells through the room.
When we turned around, a man was there holding a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in another. I put a protective hand over Bronwyn's head in case he shoots, it will do a lot less damage to my hand than it will to her head.
Enoch jumped out of the ice and stood in front of me, and Emma and Jacob try to hide Martin's body. We all stood there, terrified when little Bronwyn speaks up.
"We didn't mean to break in! We was just leaving, honest!"
I tighten my grip around her and walk up beside Enoch. He puts his arm out, blocking me from being upfront.
"Stay where you are!" the man shouted.
"Mister, we ain't had nothing to eat all day," Enoch whined, stepping closer to the guy with the gun. "All we come for was a fish or two, I swear!"
"Is that so? It looks like you've picked one out. Let's see what kind," he threatens, waving the flashlight between Jacob and Emma. "Step aside!" he shouted.
They did, and the light went over Martin's body. He tried scaring us, talking about how it was an odd looking fish and that it was still moving. I held onto Enoch's arm with my free hand, and carried Bronwyn in the other. Enoch stood mostly in front of me, just out of the way enough so I could see what's happening.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"That depends on who you ask, and it isn't nearly as important as the fact I know who you are."
He moved the flashlight to Emma. "Emma Bloom, lighter than air, abandoned at a circus when her parents couldn't sell her to one."
He moved the flashlight past me and Enoch to the little girl in my arms. "Bronwyn Bruntley, berserker, taster of blood. Didn't know her own strength until the night she snapped her rotten stepfather's neck."
He moved it to Enoch. "Enoch O'Connor, dead-riser, born to a family of undertakers who couldn't understand why their clients kept walking away."
He moved the flashlight to me. "Y/N Cooper, telepathic girl with the ability to read minds and sense feeling. Takes in other's emotions because she has none for herself."
I felt myself recoil back as Enoch looks at me.
How does this guy know who I am?
"And Jacob. Such peculiar company you're keeping these days."
"How do you know my name?" Jacob questions.
"Did you forget me so quick?" he said in a New England accent, "But then I'm just a poor old bus driver, guess you wouldn't remember."
"Mr. Barron?" Jacob asked.
"Either him or the yard man!" he said in a deep Florida drawl.
"How are you doing that? How do you know those people?" Jacob asked.
"Because I am those people," he replied.
"What about you Y/N, surely you would remember me!" he said in a New York accent.
It was so familiar. It exactly matched the one my no-good 5th grade science teacher had.
"I remember you crying the day you failed my test. Oh what a joy that was, watching your telekinetic sister trying to comfort you. You didn't have many friends, now did you?"
I feel anger in the room, hatred towards this man. How did he know my sister had telekinesis? Was she floating pencils around the classroom during his class?
"Don't talk to her like that!" Enoch defended.
He aimed his gun at him, and Enoch immediately shut up. I tap his shoulder so he turns around and looks at me. Telepathically, I say thank you for sticking up for me. He just nods, and I'm assuming it was in fear his word might be said aloud.
"What's happening? Who is this man?" Emma asks.
"Shut up," he snapped, "you'll get your turn."
"You've been watching me. You killed those sheep and Martin!" Jacob yells.
"Who me? I didn't kill anyone," he innocently says.
"But you're a wight, aren't you?" Jacob replies.
"That's their word," Barron said.
"How'd you find me?" Jake asks.
"Why Jacob," he says, his voice changing again to a middle-American accent, "you told me yourself. In confidence, of course,"
"Dr. Golan. The neighbor, the old man watering his lawn the night my grandfather died. That was you too." Jacob whispered.
Barron, Dr. Golan, whatever you wanna call him stared going off about contact lenses, and how Jacob should join him. Emma told him not to listen to Barron, and he didn't.
"I can offer you safety, money. I can give you your life back Jacob. All you have to do is work with us," bribed Barron.
"Us?" Jacob questions, and I can't help but wonder the same thing.
"Malthus and me. Come and say hello, Malthus," he calls, turning his head behind his shoulder.
It was no question what came out of the dark. It was a shadow that smelled worse than anything I've ever smelled before. Bronwyn gagged, Emma clenched her fists, and Jacob took a step back.
Malthus was a hollowgast.
A/N: Heyy guys. Sorry it has been a while since I've last posted. I've been veryyyy busy lately, and I haven't had time to work on this. I wouldn't get your hopes up about having a chapter every Saturday and Sunday... I don't know why I said that. Haha, anyways most the stuff in this chapter comes straight out of the novel Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and another one will be out soon (hopefully)! -Luna Maine