Dreamers // Enoch O'Connor

Chapter 39: The End?

The End - A final part of something, especially a period of time, an activity, or a story.
Question Mark - A punctuation mark (?) indicating a question, used to express doubt or uncertainty about something.
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Greetings.

Welcome to the 'final' chapter.

This chapter 'completes' the story of Enoch O' Connor and Ashlyn Wainwright.

Fair warning, death is involved.

-----

The curly haired boy who smelled of cinnamon and rain knocked 3 times against the wooden door, his knuckles sending echoes of sound into the adjacent room.

"Ashlyn?"

However, no response came, and considering the recent events (the girl slowly withering away), Enoch had every right to swing the door open as fast as he could.

And what he saw would stay embedded into his mind, forever.

The girl lay on her bed, her closed eyes as she faced the ceiling. Her skin was ghostly pale, as if someone had covered her in paint, and her rosy lips were beginning to fade, as if they were lost in a fog.

Enoch bolted to her side, grasping her shoulders in his large palms, shouting her name over and over again.

Begging.

But he knew she was gone.

No clouds of air emerged from her lips, no soft breaths raised her chest up and down.

And her emerald green eyes did not open. Nor would they ever again.

The deadriser's eyes welled with tears as the corpse in front of him became a blurry image of death. He lay his head upon her chest, shoulders rattling as his loud sobs echoed through the room.

And this was the moment Miss. Peregrine came into the room as well, a gasp claiming her body as she saw the image in front of her.

She shut the door behind her, stepping inside.

Yet no tears emerged from the ymbrynes eyes.

-----

Enoch O' Connor sat in the girls room, holding her soft hand, praying that it wasn't true.

All he wanted was to see her laugh again. To see her smile. Just to see her.

He wished he had helped.

After all, the signs were all there.

It was practically murder.

-----

A funeral was held for Ashlyn Wainwright, days after her death.

It was in her room, where she would remain, just as Victor Bruntley lay asleep in his room.

An 'advantage' of living in the loop would be that the corpses never disintegrated. Never became a mush of skin, organs, and bones.

As the younger peculiars hung a white sheet over the girl, who had come to resemble Snow White, Hugh had to hold back a thrashing Enoch.

Everyone lived with a cloud over their heads, rain droplets constantly scattering on their cheeks.

But Enoch O' Connor lived in a storm.

People knew that the girl meant the literal world to him, that he would give everything up just for her.

But nobody knew how much she actually meant.

She had saved him, in ways he could never explain.

She had brought some form of light into his dark, dark world. A ray of sunshine.

She had showed him what love truly meant. What a family really meant.

She taught him what trust was, what being able to rely on someone was really like.

She showed him that it doesn't take a lot to be truly happy. All you need is a friend.

She taught him that everything would be alright in the end.

Except now it wouldn't. Cause she was gone. Forever, and ever.

The peculiars all placed dozens of flowers around her body, a myraid of colors and blossoms surrounding Ashlyn, a river of tears drowning everyone else.

And Enoch placed the small, broken rose she had given him inside her palm, wrapping her gentle fingers around them.

-----

A knock on the bedroom door.

Miss. Peregrine entered Ashlyn's room, being greeted by the sight of Enoch sitting on the floor next to her bed.

His face was dark, solemn, and broken.

Everything the girl had managed to mend, untying.

Miss. Peregrine, however, showed no sign of grief at all.

"Why don't you care?" Enoch muttered, quiet, alone.

"I do," the ymbryne replied, walking over and smoothening the boys curls.

"You did, nothing, NOTHING, to prevent this!" He yelled, pulling away from her motherly touch, "You knew this would happen, didn't you!?"

Miss. Peregrine nodded, "It was a family inherited disease. Her grandfather had it, and since peculiarities are passed on after 2 generations, so was this. He died much older, of course, I never anticipated it would come this early."

"But you could have helped her!" he barked, refusing to look at the ymbryne, "if you did she wouldn't be- she wouldn't-" his voice cracked, not able to say the words.

"She's not dead, Enoch... You of all people should know that."

-----

If Miss. Peregrine never instructed the boy to think the way he would, he probably would have ended his own life right next to Ashlyn. Two lovers, dreamers, in heaven together, Romeo and Juliet all over again.

Enoch will become, once again, grumpy, sarcastic, rude, mean, and defensive.

And his story will continue, where he will meet Jacob Portman.

And Ashlyn Wainwright will never be forgotten, will never be 'dead' as Miss. Peregrine phrased it. Her soul will lay in her star, the one she chose with Enoch, her image and words will conjure in everybody's thoughts every single day.

However, I invite you to ponder one question.

Ashlyn Wainwright died due to a withering heart, a heart that lay in the middle of her chest like a computer chip, connected to thousands of arteries and veins that resembled wires. A motherboard that any person who knew how to wire a computer would be able to fix.

Enoch O' Connor was a dead riser, capable of bringing to life just about anything.

So is this really 'the end' for the dreamers?

"Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end." - John Lennon