Untouchable (A Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Story)

Chapter 11 🦔

"What?!"

Hugh's jaw dropped and a few bees flew out. I could only imagine Millard's reaction.

"You heard me," I restated. "Victor loves me."

"Hmm," I heard Millard trill. "You don't seem happy about that, Roxy." There he goes again. Even though I haven't known him for very long, I have gathered that he is very observant. Reminds me of myself.

"I'm not happy," I said. "I'm just... confused."

As I sniffed the air, I concluded that he was really close again.

"Millard, second warning!"

"Sorry, Roxy," he said taking a few steps back. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him I would think about it. Anyway, now that you two know everything, you have to swear that you will tell no one else."

"I swear," said Hugh, raising his hand.

"I swear as well," added Millard.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my right ankle. I'll admit that I may have let out a curse word in German, which took both boys back.

"Roxy, where did you learn to speak German?" They both asked.

"It's my second language," I explained. "My grandpa was originally from Germany, but moved to America." Oh, Grandpa. Just mentioning him brought back so many memories. He would always tell Lance and I stories when we visited about growing up in Germany during the reign of a Kaiser. When I asked him what a Kaiser was, he told me that it's the German equivalent on an emperor. My grandpa missed the days when a Kaiser ruled Germany, so when my dad was born, he was named Wilhem.

To be honest, I don't speak in my grandfather's native tongue very often, just when I need to curse and I don't want anyone to understand what I'm saying. So what, Dimitri speaks fluent Russian. But why was my leg hurting?

I bent down and brushed my ankle, but came up with red liquid on my fingertips. Blood! My blood! Something bumped against my other leg. It was a little man made out of clay holding a kitchen knife. "What's this?" I questioned as I held the squirming doll.

"One of Enoch's homunculi," said Millard. "I told you it wasn't me earlier."

I examined the little clay man, but it struck my hand and scurried away.

"That's strange," Hugh mentioned. "Usually, Enoch only pranks us once or twice a week.

"Yes," Millard concurred. "It he pranks someone twice a day, it usually means they've done something to upset him and he's trying to get even."

In that moment, I started to think. What could I have possibly done to Enoch to make him act like this towards me. Of course, I knew the answer: nothing! Then why did one of his dolls try to slice through my tendons?

Enoch's POV:

Take that, Roxanne! Wow, I have never felt as alive as I was in that moment. The look on her face was priceless! Unfortunately, I don't think she'd had enough, so I was off to the basement to come up with my next plan. But there was one problem.

In my haste, I may have dropped one of my homunculi. I went to grab it, but when I heard footsteps, I decided to leave it. I can make another one once I get back to my supplies.

Lance's POV:

I'm so upset! No one wants to play with me. Olive and Claire won't play dolls with me because I'm a boy. After last time, Millard refused to play hide-and-seek with me. Fiona and Hugh are always together and I didn't want to be a third wheel. Horace told me not to go anywhere near him and I can't stand Enoch. Roxy is too busy now and I'm afraid to ask anyone else, especially Luna.

Katie tells me the same thing my father always tells me: to make my own fun. Back when I first started school, that used to be no problem for me, but then, Axel Myers showed up. Axel was this rotten bully who used to call me all sorts of names. At least I could handle that kind of pain; this pain is way worse. What's wrong with me?

Unfortunately, I wasn't watching where I was going and I almost tripped. Before I could hit the ground, though, I noticed something. It looked like a misshapen gingerbread man, so I picked it up out of curiosity. The thing I picked up was actually a clay doll with no face (man, it looked creepy). Still, it was full of potential; a blank canvas that could become whatever I wanted.

I stuffed the doll in my pocket and headed for Victor's room. He doesn't know it, but I've hid a secret stash of shed quills under his bed. With no one wanting to play with me, I've developed a hobby of counting all of the quills I've shed. It's boring! Hopefully, this doll will give me something better to do.

I started to fix him up. First, I took a few quills from the bundle. Next, I stuck those quills into the doll. Finally, I took a permanent marker from my pocket and drew a smiley face on him. He was perfect!

"You're gonna be my new friend," I said to him. "All you need now is a name."