Caged Bird

Part Six

Enoch's POV;

When myself, Bronwyn, and Millard had entered that room, we hadn't expected to find what we had. That, being two men dressed in lab coats holding rags stained with blood against our ymbryne, obviously trying to sto bleeding from somewhere.

Bronwyn had dashed into the room, Millard and I followig closely behind. Our strong girl had grabbed the closest man and literally thrown him through the open doorway, out into the corridor. Then Millard and I had started fighting with the other man and it ended with me kicking him out of the room and trying to run after him so I could wrap my hands around his scrawny neck, only to be held back by Bronwyn and Millard.

"What's going on here?" Jake demanded as he and the others peered out of the rooms thwy'd been searching.

He moved closer down the corridor and it was only after he glanced inside the room Bronwyn, Millard, and I had searched that he understood.

"Oh god," he muttered and covered his mouth, possibly so he wouldn't throw up.

Emma was next. She made her way inside the room, her lead shoes making a racket, and stopped next to Miss P. A sob escaped her and she turned away from the bloody mess the men had made of our m- ymbryne.

"We need to wake her. We don't have much time until the loop closes. Someone find me some alcohol," I ordered and ran back into the room.

The others scattered and went running to find a bottle of alcohol. Bronwyn and Olive stayed with the men to keep them under control.

"What have they done to you, Miss P?" I whispered as I started undoing the leather straps bounding her to the operation table.

This was not what I was expecting to find. Maybe I was expecting wights, or hollows, but not this. This was a prime example of why ymbrynes protected peculiar children and kept them in loops. But then... who protects the ymbrynes? Who saves them when things like this happen?

I was undoing the final strap when Fiona and Hugh ran in, a bottle of gin in Fiona's hands. She passed it over to me and I shook it, seeing how much was in there. It was half full. It would have to do, I surmised.

"This'll do," I muttered and told Fiona and Hugh to go get the others, if only to get rid of the anxious buzzing coming from Hugh's bees.

I pressed a tentative hand to Miss Peregrine's throat to check her pulse. I knew she was alive judging by her deep breathing, but I had to make sure she wasn't dying or too far under to come back in time to reset the loop. It sounded selfish waking Miss P to reset the loop when she was so obviously injured, but it was for her own good. If the loop closed we'd all age forward and die, then all of this would have been for nought. We might as well have just left her to her own devices.

I opened the bottle of gin and tried to ignore the stares coming from the gathering group of peculiars. With lightly shaking hands, I waved the open bottle of gin under Miss P's nose and kept my eyes away from the dark pool of blood on the left side of her face. I had to concentrate on waking Miss Peregrine, not killing the men who has done this to her.

It took about a minute, but Miss Peregrine soon reacted. Her nose twitched and her eyes moved under her lids. Seconds later, she took a deep breath and scrunched her face against the smell of gin. With her eyes still closed, she pushed my hand away from her face then moved it to hold her left eye with her brows furrowed in pain.

I looked to the others who looked as confused as I was. She soon started moaning in pain, obviously unable to take it.

"Miss Peregrine?" I prompted, making her immediately open her uncovered eye. She looked at me in shock.