dreams- fleetwood mac
"why are you dressed like a powder puff?"
edith asks us chuckling.
i look down at my dress i thought was rather beautiful, as she speaks again.
"oh, my! you both look the spit of her."
"you recognize us?" enola asks her with a small smile.
"of course i do. i was your first teacher." she begins as she walks towards us, looking between us both.
"don't you remember?" she asks before grabbing a hold of enola and tilting her back.
i jump away in fear with a small shriek as they stare into each others eyes.
enola flips edith over onto her back as she grunts rather loudly.
she begins to chuckle as she compliments enola.
"you've progressed nicely, i can see."
enola unhooks her arm from around the ladies neck and sticks her hand out to help her up.
"i can see you still aren't a fan of violence, are you florence?" she asks me as she leads us to a rather large office room.
"not in the slightest." i inform her raising my eyebrows for emphasis.
"you're alone? in london?" she asks us as she leans up against a table, enola and i sitting before her.
"yes... well besides eachother." enola begins. "there was a useless boy, but we rid ourselves of him." she finishes rolling her eyes.
i hit her in the arm as she winced slightly.
i turn to edith and say. "he wasn't useless! he was quite an enjoyment to be around in fact." i say with a small smile.
"yes, if you fancy him!" enola shouts looking at me.
"like florence does." she finished with a smirk, looking up at edith.
"i do not!"
"hmm." she responds. "was he good looking?"
"edith!" i whine carrying on the 'th' as they both laugh at me.
"we have money, lodgings. we just need to find her." enola states, finally changing the subject.
"what makes you think she wants to be found?"
i narrow my eyes at edith as she continues.
"eudoria's been hiding all her life. if she wants to stay hidden, she will." she shrugs. "and besides, she has work to do."
"what work?" i ask almost instantly.
"i cannot say."
-flashback-
"right, ladies, our choices: the bankmen met, entangle herb, or ellie houseman." mother says to the group of ladies.
she looks up to see florence and enola stepping into the room.
she was there.
-end of flashback-
"so you were at that meeting too." i say looking up at the lady.
-flashback-
mother.
door closing.
women.
women.
her.
edith.
-end of flashback-
edith looks down as enola asks.
"who is ellie houseman?"
she sighs before answering.
"i wish i could help you more."
"you can, but you won't." i snap rather quickly.
"i must get back to my students. you can see yourselves out." she says walking away.
"hey!" enola shouts running behind her and placing a hand firmly on her shoulder.
"enola, no! she's not worth it." i whine as edith flips enola onto the ground.
i jump with wide eyes as enola rolls onto her stomach looking at edith's shoe.
she wraps her hand around her ankle and spins onto her back, putting her other hand up as well.
she does some sort of spin? thing?
as edith bends down and grabs her firmly.
"ah, the corkscrew. you could never manage that one, could ya?" she asks standing up and walking towards the door.
"if you wanna stay in london, be tough, be tough, live the life, but don't do it because you're looking for someone. do it because you're looking for yourself." she says looking down at enola, then up to me. "you too. toughen up, be violent every once in a while." she tells me, then walks out of the room.
i walk over to enola who's touching the bun on her head.
i reach my hand out as she puts her dress down, and gets up herself.
she begins walking over to a strange wooden crate, and takes some sort of tube out.
-flashback-
mother walks towards the door as florence and enola both catch a quick glimpse of a wooden crate in the corner, with some sort of red dragon design on it.
-end of flashback-
i look at the confusing thing and think to myself as enola slowly twists it.
-flashback-
"our choices:
the bankmen met,
entangle herb,
or ellie houseman."
-end of flashback-
*florence*
the bankmen met.
our mother is rather a fan of word games.
she made us read every book in ferndells library.
every book.
"bankmen met."
bankmen...
met.
the embankment!
-flashback-
"we need to make a decision.
entangle herb."
entangle herb...
'bethnal green' the map read.
bethnal green.
"so, we're all agreed?" eudoria asks
ellie houseman...
"agreed?" she asks again.
"ellie houseman."
ellie houseman.
"ellie houseman."
ellie house...man.
house.
mother's word game.
alien house elm,
meal house line,
aline house elm,
male house line,
lean house mile,
lean house lime,
lane house mile,
lame house line,
neal house mile,
lean house elm,
lane house elm,
lean house lime,
lane house lime,
lean house mile,
line house meal,
mile house lane,
lime house lane,
limehouse lane.
ellie houseman.
"so, we're all agreed?"
i look at the red dragon on the top of the crate.
limehouse lane.
enola and i walk through a small, town like, shopping area.
seagulls squawk around us we see a sign that reads,
'limehouse lane'
we begin to walk down the alley way, past many different people and machines.
i put my head down as people stare at us in confusion, looking us up and down.
a man holding a crate of milk bottles walks rather quickly beside us.
"are we going home now?" a small voice says, causing me to look back up.
a small girl hand in hand with a woman.
"yes." the woman responds.
"i'm hungry, mother." the little girl says.
"i know, dear."
i look at enola with sympathy.
i wish no one ever had to go through that.
ever.
enola turns towards me and we begin walking once again.
as we walk, a pop of purple catches my eye.
enola continues to slowly walk as i look to my right at the purple ribbon tied to a lock.
"enola." i call out to her.
she turns to me and looks the direction i am.
i look back at her with a confused face and begin walking towards it, her following behind.
i take the ribbon between my fingers and run them along the fabric.
-flashback-
ribbon.
purple ribbon.
present.
floral paper.
mother.
left side of her chest.
every woman.
purple ribbon.
-end of flashback-
i look at enola with a smirk, that she returns.
we open a window around the corner from the door as far as it can go.
we peek inside for a moment before enola says.
"i'll go first, to help you in."
she crawls through the window as i look around to see if anyone's watching.
"come on." enola whispers, reaching her hands out.
once we're both in the mysterious room,
we begin to look around, and walk around the long rectangular table that's placed in the middle of the room.
it seems to be filled with tons of different cans, bottles, plates, ash, everything.
-flashback-
"try to be excited, not disappointed," eudoria begins as she drops some sort of liquid onto a plate of ash.
florence and enola stand on either side of her, all wearing goggles.
"at the possibilities of something new." she finishes, pulling back her two daughters.
-end of flashback-
enola picks up a glass bottle as i put my hand onto a plate of ash.
i remove my hand as she pours a bit into the top and splashes it onto the plate, as we both back away quickly.
boom !
sparks emit from the small plate as enola and i smile and chuckle to each other.
she places the top back on the bottle and i see a stack of something, wrapped in that same purple ribbon.
i flip it over to see some sort of small posters
'women's suffrage
votes for women public meeting'
are the words that stuck out the most.
i turn my head towards enola as we do the same, and simply just smirk.
we continue slowly walking as i see different powders layed out all around the table.
barrels against the walls reading
'gun powder
black gunpowder amberite'
i look at them in shock as enola picks up a folded paper.
i turn to see what she's got and see the words
'protest, unrest & civil disobedience'
'these three devices will cause maximum disruption'
i turn away to look at the barrels again.
"florence..." enola whispers, i turn my head to see what she needs as i see a picture of bomb.
i gasp rather loudly.
'what are you up to mother?' i ask myself frightened.
i can only imagine what would happen if a bomb went off in the middle of london.
"mycroft was right." i softly say.
"she is dangerous." we both say.
i dust off a piece of paper as enola removes the top to a crate, setting it against the brick wall.
"and sherlock was right too." she whispers, with a slight crack in her voice.
i look over rather slowly, only to be met with something i never want to be near or see ever. again.
about two small crates full of the tube things which enola informed me were dynamite, along with a collection of bombs.
"you do have a plan." enola whispers again, referring to mother.
what are you planning, mother?
do we want to find you?
we turn around towards the window and leave this horrifying place.
we walk past the locked door once again, both seeing the purple ribbon blowing in the slight wind.
"i'll be right back flora, you go ahead. i've left my bag in the room" she tells me.
-flashback-
"toughen up."
-end of flashback-
the words edith has said to me continue to repeat in my head.
toughen up.
toughen up.
"ok." i say back to enola, she smiles and begins to walk back towards the window as i continue on.
i go to turn the corner as an arm grabs the back of my neck.
"ah!" i scream loudly, hoping enola could hear me.
the person shoves my head into a large bucket of water as i scream.
bubbles come from my mouth as i try my hardest to push against their grip.
my hands slip off the rim of the bucket as they shove my head in even further.
i'm going to die.
toughen up.
they now have two hands gripping my neck harder and harder submerging my head under
toughen up.
the person yanks me out of the water as i gasp for air.
i look towards them,
the man in the brown bowler hat.
"i will ask you this only once. where is the marquess?"
i look up at him panting. "sorry but i'm afraid i-"
he cuts me off my slamming my head back into the bucket of water, holding it there.
he pulls me back up once more, as i struggle to breath.
"we went our separate ways!" i tell him in an attempt for him to let me go.
nope.
he slams my head back in the water, my hands slipping from holding myself up.
he pulls my head back out yet again, his grip starting to ache my neck.
before i can even think of breathing he pushes my head back under, pulling me back out a few seconds later.
toughen up.
i gasp for even the slightest bit of air as i try to speak. "i've not seen him, neither of us. we have nothing to do with him!" i struggle out, trying to pry his strong grip my the back of my neck.
"that's a shame." he begins, bringing his other hand to the front of my neck. "well, you've seen my face now." he starts, now practically choking me.
"no! your face is absolutely unmemorable!" i shout.
he slams my head back into the water as i scream as loud as i can.
toughen up.
i struggle to bring my hands to the rim of the bucket.
i scream as i try to swat him away, he's too strong to fight back.
i smack the sides of the bucket as i can longer deal with it.
my hands still.
my head still.
my hands fall limp over the side of the bucket as he pushes my head down, finally letting go of my neck.
toughen up.
i stand up as fast as i can and hit the man in the brown bowler hat hard in the face with the back of my head.
i run out of the alleyway as enola runs towards me.
"sorry i took so long i-"
"run!" i shout at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her with me.
we turn a corner and sit against a wall as i breath heavily, enola turns her head to peak around the corner.
"what happened?" she asks me.
"i'll explain later." i tell her
*florence*
i'm not sure we ever described how a typical days education worked with our mother.
i breath heavily, trying my best to stay quiet.
we'd start with history.
she always said...
-flashback-
"historical perspective is the only way to begin a day."
-end of flashback-
then we'd lunch,
and work on our physics.
enola begins to clip her bangs back.
"stay here, don't move." she tells me firmly.
i timidly shake my head 'yes'
then after lunch, i'd go outside, enola would focus on fitness...
*enola*
...followed by fight combat.