Muddy Waters / enoch o'connor {Slow Updates}

act two | part two

act two | part two - a lesson in peculiar history

Among the downsides of peculiardom, is our lack of written history. For ages, fables have been handed down, switched and changed as the years went on, adapted to different readers, spoken by other peculiar's who may not have remembered all the correct details. What we're left with, is a broken down story with very little truth in it. 

A worn copy of the tales sat seemingly untouched in the library as I walked around the home that morning. I knew that Millard had been sculling around, given the hot cup of tea still steaming on the desk, open books with pages fluttering in the open window. 

"Good morning," Millard greeted. 

He shuffled in the desk chair, it moved out and pushed back in. The fluttering pages were held shut by an invisible hand.

"Morning," I greeted, trudging closer to meet with him. 

I was still tired from a lack of sleep - Enoch's bed was never big enough for the both of us. I'd rushed out that morning around 4 AM, in fear of Miss Peregrine, for some reason, walking in and seeing it. Though nothing had happened, she would still frown upon it. 

"Millard, you seem to be quite the scholar of all things peculiar," I began, sitting on the edge of the desk. 

"I am!" He said brightly, the book scooting only slightly across the table.

I wasn't aware of how little I knew of my own kind until a few days ago. My lack of loop knowledge was disheartening, and Miss Peregrine swore she would continue all our studies just as soon as summer break let up. Regardless of how strict she was, she still allowed us a break like the other common  school children. 

"Then you must know a little something about loops then, right?" 

"What's your question?" Millard pushed. 

"Okay, it's kind of morbid, but bare with me, okay?" 

He hummed. 

"If a peculiar child, died in a time-loop, when the loop reset, would the child still be dead?"

"Yes," he replied, "because he's effected and conscious of the loop. Humans, however, can die every day in a loop but will continue on living. They aren't effected or conscious of it, so they come back. You get it?"

Hardly, but I nodded none the less. If what Constantine said was true about Victor dying at the hands of a hollowgast, we had to figure out if it was inside the loop or outside. Regardless, there was a hollow too close for comfort, possibly lurking and waiting for us outside the loop, waiting for the very second we decided to leave again - like Victor. 

"Why do ask?"
"I've been living in loops for most of my life and I hardly know anything about how the work. Just the very basics." 

Millard stood up and his bare fit paddled over to the tall bookshelves. 

"Can you put some clothes on," I asked, sighing. 

"Later," he replied, "Loop theory." 

He pulled a large, unbound book from the corner. It was old, falling apart at the seams and lacking an apparent cover. Pages were crinkled and pulled up, water damage dotting along it's entire surface. All the other books in the library were brightly and beautifully bound in colorful leathers and fabrics, but this one was a sight for sore eyes. 

"This," Millard announced, "is Perpelexus Anomalous' theory on loops and how they work. He helped create the map of days, finding every loop throughout peculiardom. Some believed he was actually searching for Abaton, but we'll never know."