Change in Heart ▪ Enoch O'Connor

VI.

When Ash could finally open her eyes, she found everything together, nothing like a bomb had been dropped on it. It was just the same as it was when she had first arrived. Only it was dark as night, and a cool breeze blew.

"What was that?" Ash breathed. A tall blonde girl, whose name was Emma, smiled at her. 

"It was only the changeover, silly. Didn't Lizzie ever tell you anything?" 

Ash's heart was still beating fast as lightning as the peculiars walked back to the house. She hadn't had a proper tour of the house, so she stood awkwardly, as the others trudged to their rooms. 

"Miss Peregrine?" Ash asked. Miss Peregrine, who was walking towards her study, stopped and turned on heel. 

"Yes, Ashnar?" 

"Where do I stay?" Ash asked quietly. Miss Peregrine was extremely intimidating to Ash, her tall figure, dark clothes, eyes that hardly ever blinked, calling Ash by her actual name. It all made her want to run back home. But then she smiled and her face softened as she bent down before Ash. 

"I am sorry Ashnar, please excuse my terrible manners. You will be staying with Emma. It is at the end of the right hall, on the left, next to Enoch and across from Horace." 

Ash whispered a thank you and made her way upstairs, following Miss Peregrine's instructions. She found the door at the end of the hall labeled 'Emma' and knocked on it. The door handle had been charred a bit, so anyone would've known it was Emma's room without looking at the label. She opened the door and smiled when seeing it was her. 

"Come in, Ashnar! You can put your clothes in the closet over there." She said, pointing at a closet near a large bed. The room was quite large, much larger than her room at home. Ash felt as though she wasn't staying here forever, and it is just a nights stay, in such an extravagant place. Everything here was truly ineffable, and Ash felt like a princess. 

"Thank you. And you may call me Ash" 

"Alright then, Ash," Emma replied with a goofy smile, her golden curls sweeping across her shoulder. 

Ash stepped carefully into the room, as if she would break something at the slightest brush. She set her bag upon the bed and sat down on it. The bed was much comfier than it looked, much better than her bed in her cottage. 

"How long have you been here?" Ash asked, amazed. Emma just went to her bed, sat down, and chuckled. 

"It's only been 27 years, you'll get used to it." 

"I just don't get how you could get used to this," Ash breathed. Emma just smiled, pulling off her shoes. 

"You are much like your mother. I remember her as if I just saw her yesterday," Emma whispered. Ash was still in shock from leaving her mother, and then coming here to such extravagance, that she had forgotten anyone knew Mother. 

"You do?" Ash stupidly asked, when the answer was obviously just stated. 

"Yup! She came here before me. She was almost exactly like you, only more hyper, like Hugh." Emma said. 

"What was her peculiarity?" Ash blurted. She had wanted to know for so long.

"She had power over light and electricity. It was truly amazing. She couldn't really touch anything for a while, until she could control it, or else she would zap it and fry it. I will never forget the time she burnt Enoch pretty bad. But that was when they were close." 

Emma cut off there, like it wasn't something she was supposed to say. So I guess Mother and Enoch had a spark between them.  It was odd now to say, because her mother was only a teenager then, just as Ash is now. Now she's in her fourties, and Enoch still looks like a teen.

"We should go to sleep now. I can socialize with everyone tomorrow," Ash spoke quietly, breaking the silence.

Emma nodded and smiled, "Yes, you must be tired, Ash" 

And with that Emma shut off the lights and Ash snuggled into her luxurious bed. Ash couldn't sleep though. It had been such an eventful day, and her brain just couldn't process it all. She had left Mother and her home in just one day, and for who knows how long. She found a place she believed couldn't be real, to be real and thriving with amazing people like no other. She met her very own brother, made friends with a fire creator, and now she was laying in her new, comfortable bed. On a day that just repeats itself, over and over again.