Chapter nineteen

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Jeanette and Addison had accompanied Josef outside and the three had been gone a long time

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Jeanette and Addison had accompanied Josef outside and the three had been gone a long time. A lightning storm raged outside, and they all knew it was Josef's doing.

Horace finally moved away from the window, closing the old, heavy curtains behind him.

"Why do you think this happened to him?" Horace sighed, sitting down beside Enoch, who looked like he was brooding.

Leo, Melanie and Caspar exchanged a glance. Stephan however, lifted his head from where he had rested it on a cushion and looked at Horace. "It's because of where he came from."

This peaked Enoch's interest and he looked at Stephan curiously. "Where?" He questioned.

"I'll tell them." Leo announced. "A lightning strike hit the steps of the porch outside our house. When Miss Eagle went outside to check the damage, Josef was lying there unconscious. He didn't know who he was or how he got there. So we named him."

"Does he remember anything?" Horace asked.

"Not really, he has a few strange flashbacks now and again, but he doesn't like talking about it." Casper answered with a shrug.

At that moment, a fear-stricken Jeanette walked through the door, tears shining in her eyes. "He's gone!" She announced.

Horace stood up at once. "What do you mean he's gone?"

"It-it happened the same way he came to us." Jeanette collapsed in a chair, shaken by the events. "He just looked at us, said he was sorry. And then a lightning strike hit him and then he was gone."

"Where?" Horace demanded. Addison entered the room, a grave expression on his face. He slowly scratched his ear with his leg.

"There are several answers to that." Addison climbed onto the chair beside Jeanette. "It is most likely that whatever sent him here has reclaimed him."

"So we'll never see him again?" Caspar asked with sad, wide eyes.

"He may reappear on the next storm, although it is a lottery as to whether or not he will remember anything." Addison said.

"I don't understand. Are you saying he is not peculiar?" Melanie asked curiously.

"He is a peculiar, however it seems his mother may possibly be the legendary Miss Thunderbird." Addison hypothesised.

"Thunderbirds aren't real, they're a myth to explain lightning." Enoch stated plainly.

"Let me tell you a story, children." Addison said.

"Millard would love this." Horace muttered to Enoch, who merely nodded.

"There once was a ymbryne named Miss Thunderbird, so named for the mythical creature she miraculously turned into, she decided, against all rules of ymbrynes, to have her own children, and create a loop in the sky." Addison said.

"In the sky!" Caspar burst out. The others shushed him, enthralled by the dogs tale.

"Yes child, the sky." Addison answered dryly. "She often feared airplanes, believing them to be wights or monsters in disguise, so when one got too near to her safe haven, she would send hert children to safety. Her method for doing this however, often gave her children amnesia, but they were all peculiar, and all could control electricity."

"So why has she taken Josef back?" Leo asked.

"She would have spent time trying to find him after she deemed it safe. The strange symptoms you have been seeing could have been his mother trying to find him. At last she has found him, he will be perfectly safe." Addison explained.

"Why isn't it in tales of the peculiar?" Stephan muttered questioningly.

"That is an old book, full of tales that happened even before Jeanette was born." Addison joked, earning a defensive 'hey1' from the girl. "It is a more recent tale, but still true."

"Will he come back?" Caspar asked at the same time as Horace questioned the same thing.

"That is his choice." Addison said with a half-hearted sigh.

"No one said anything for a moment until Jeanette stood up meaningfully. "I do believe hot chocolate is in order."

"Everything you need is in the fridge, I'd better be off." Addison said.

"Goodbye Addy, thank you for your help." Jeanette called from the kitchwn.

"Pleasure's all mine." Addison said, with that he was gone.

"I can't believe all that has happened." Stephan attempted to stand up, but Melanie stopped him.

"You must rest Steph!" She told him.

"I want to help!" Stephan argued weakly.

"Jenny and Enoch have it under control." Melanie answered, looking to the kitchen to see Jeanette and Enoch laugh at what seemed like an inside joke. She felt a pang of sadness as she wished that she had someone like that.

After a short while, Jeanette and Enoch entered the room qwth a tray of drinks and two plates piled high with freshly buttered toast. The food and drink was quickly passed around them all and they sat around the fire, relaxing and chatting happily.

"Jenny, I have to ask, what's all this talk of magic?" Leo asked. Jeanette finished her slice of toast thoughtfully.

"It seems another story is in order." Jeanette laughed. "It all began long ago."

"How long ago?" Caspar inquired.

"Very long ago." Jeanette answered. "A group of peculiars, long before the wifghts were even an idea in someone's mind, decided that they wanted kmore. And thet didn't just want more, they wanted to make their peculiarity into something that could destroy, and create, and control. They wanted objects of symbols of power, like the witches of old. All they did manage to create was a dark and sinister forces that no one can control. They only grew and became more powerful. They put their new power into words, creating spells, poisons, attacking normal, which is what caused the witch trials. And that was what finally forced them into hiding, but they still haunt this earth, even now. There is NO good magic in peculiardom! You must remember that, because if you forget, you could land yourself into huge amounts of danger. Only dark, evil magic exists. Words that can change things, are always bad. The spell Ethan cast on Stephan, that is the worst of them all, to take someone's will away id the most terrible thing of all. The peculiars of all paid little price for their actions. They still live on, but the information they left, in the hands of the wights, could kill us all." She finished. None of them said anything. "Right off to bed!"

"Jenny, is this true?" Caspar asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, it is, but don't worry, the peculiars of old won't haunt you in the night, so off you pop." She said, the group began to move upstairs, where there were beds set up for them.

At last only Enoch and Jenny were left in the living room.

"Enoch would you like to meet my parents?" She asked him, he stared at her in surprise.

"I- okay."

A strange peculiarity || Enoch O'ConnorWhere stories live. Discover now