EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT // ENOCH O'CONNOR

CHAPTER FOUR - THE PORTRAIT

Tuesday, 30th October 1956 || Tuesday, 3rd September 1940

I walked back in the house. Enoch was literally so confusing. At first, he was being so rude but then he apologised.

I marched into the house and banged the door. Accidentally. Victor appeared on the staircase. He's blonde hair was wet and messy. I had to admit, he looked kind of, okay very attractive. He walked down and faced me. "What happened?" he asked with a curious tone. "Nothing too important. Enoch is just being confusing," I answered. "So, nothing new?" he said jokingly and I chuckled. I hadn't been here long. Hell, I had been here only for a day but I already knew that Enoch was a complex human being.

Victor watched me for a bit. Then he saw my so called luggage. I didn't have time to put my painting things away, while talking to Victor. "Well, what's this," he said with a sly voice and snatched my sketchbook. "No, please don't," I begged. I was quite bad at taking any kind of critique. He opened the book at the first page. There was a small girl with the most beautiful blue eyes. They were glistening with happiness. The girl had dark almost black hair and darker skin tone. On the next couple pages were a few landscapes from my home before. Finally he reached one of my best drawing. It was a girl, again but this time she was older. She had light brown hair and it was wavy. She was focusing on cleaning shoes and sat in some kind of closet. The girl wasn't wearing any kind of dress, like a girl should, instead she had this white button up shirt and dark green high waited pants. She wasn't wearing any shoes, although she was surrounded by them. Her hair was down and free, she didn't have any coiffure. One might even say that she looked scandalous. It was one of my favourite works and one of the best.

"Wow, that's beautiful. You're really good," he said with an awe. "Thank you," I said blushing because no one had complimented me like that for a long time. "Who is she?" Victor asked. "She was one of my friends from when we lived in France. I made a couple of this kind of paintings of my friends there but I don't have them anymore," I said as he was listening to every word. "You know what, I have a genius idea," he said with a smile on his lips, "Dorothea, I want you to draw me like one of your French girls."

I nodded and motioned him towards the living room. I told him to sit down on one of the couches and sat down next to him. I opened my paints and my brush case. I didn't have any water because I had given that jar back to Enoch.

I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a cup from the shelf. I filled it with water and headed back. Victor was sitting on the couch and hadn't moved a bit. I sat down and opened my sketchbook. I started painting.

I was so deep in my thought that I wasn't really controlling what was going on. My body was just doing its own thing. When I heard children chuckle, I snapped out of my thoughts. I looked around. Children and Emma were standing in the doorway. Victor was sitting next to me and my painting was sitting on my knees. Olive said suddenly: "Look, Victor and Thea are in love." I smiled to the nickname she had given me but when I realized what she had said I started laughing. "Don't worry about it Olive," I said as the door opened and closed with a bang. A certain moody dark headed boy walked to the doorway and stood there. He looked at everyone and when he saw me and Victor he tensed up. Then he saw my portrait of Victor and marched away. "Look Enoch's jealous of Victor," Horace teased. Enoch turned around and said angrily: "Why would I be jealous, Dorothea is just a stupid girl." He walked up the stairs in his room and banged the door. Everybody was quiet. Miss Peregrine appeared behind everybody and commanded: "Everybody, the supper is ready. You may go to the dining room. And Mrs. Allerton please go and get Mr. O'Connor." I did as Miss Peregrine commanded.

I walked up the stairs where Enoch's room was. Actually this was the first time I had been there. I knocked softly on the dark oak door. What now, I could hear him thinking. "Hey, it's me. Miss Peregrine wanted me to tell you that the supper is ready. I opened the door. The room wasn't like any other room I had been in. It was darker. There were a bed and a desk and other normal things but there were also many shelves that were filled with jars. The jars contained some kind of liquid and had organs in it. "No don't come," Enoch said but it was too late I was already inside his room. "Come on now," I persuaded him. He finally gave up and stood up from his desk. He started walking and left the room by closing the door and leaving me in there. I walked out of the door, little irritated by Enoch. When I reached the dining room, the last seat left was next to Enoch.

Miss Peregrine told me to sit down. "Why does she have to sit here?" Enoch frowned. "Mr. O'Connor, it's just dinner not marriage," Miss Peregrine said as I sat down and everybody started to eat.

After the dinner I locked myself in my room. I changed my clothes and let my hair down. I sat on my bed with a book that I Miss Peregrine gave me. I sat on my bed and started reading.

I was reading for a long time. Most of the children were already sleeping when I heard a small knock on my door. I unlocked my door and opened it. Claire was standing behind it with teary eyes and a small bear in her hands. I sat her down on my bed. "What happened, my cherié*?" I asked her. "I saw a bad dream and I couldn't sleep," she said as I sensed fear glistening from her.

I put her under my covers and started singing to her:
"Au clair de la lune,
Mon ami Pierrot,
Prête-moi ta plume
Pour écrire un mot.
Ma chandelle est morte,
Je n'ai plus de feu.
Ouvre-moi ta porte
Pour l'amour de Dieu."

Au clair de la lune,
Pierrot répondit :
"Je n'ai pas de plume,
Je suis dans mon lit.
Va chez la voisine,
Je crois qu'elle y est,
Car dans sa cuisine
On bat le briquet."

Au clair de la lune,
L'aimable Lubin;
Frappe chez la brune,
Elle répond soudain :
–Qui frappe de la sorte?
Il dit à son tour :
–Ouvrez votre porte,
Pour le Dieu d'Amour.

Au clair de la lune,
On n'y voit qu'un peu.
On chercha la plume,
On chercha du feu.
En cherchant d'la sorte,
Je n'sais c'qu'on trouva;
Mais je sais qu'la porte
Sur eux se ferma."

Her eyes closed and she slowly drifted to the dreamland. I carefully picked her up still humming the lullaby. I walked through the empty hall and opened her door. The room was full of pink. I carried her to her bed and put her carefully down. I tucked her in and sat on the bed quietly singing.

I noticed the door slowly opening. And heard someone. It wasn't something usual, I couldn't hear their thoughts but I could hear and sense their emotions. And this time it was happiness or even felicity. I stood up and walked out of the room closing the door quietly.

The hallway was empty but I could see that the door to Enoch's room was ajar. Like somebody rushed in and didn't have time to close it completely. I walked back in my room. I was so tired that I couldn't even think about what had happened and as soon as I reached the bed I fell asleep.

*cherié - sweetheart

A/N: Hi guys thank you so much for 50 reads. I hope you really like this chapter and I'm sorry for anykind of mistakes because it's literally 4 am. Love you all.
-Saya