Chapter Text
It had been two weeks since Caul had died and we moved back to our old - or sort of new? - loop on the second of July. We had all begun to settle in our own ways, and had actually become quite comfortable.
This new looped version of Cairnholm was comfortingly familiar, yet still managed to be fascinating and new. We found surprises - both wonderful and terrifying - nearly every day. Millard was having the time of his life sneaking around town in the nude. He claimed that he had "detected quite an array of changes" in the majority of Cairnholm's looped inhabitants. Not that many people other than Millard, himself, however, found this remotely useful; although Noor had surprisingly begun to take a slight interest in his cartographical expertise. I found her tailing him around town him quite often.
Hugh, for his part, had taken to exploring every patch of grass and flower bed on the island. Accompanied by Fiona and occasionally Millard or Emma, he tracked down every stinging insect he could find; his old bunch had died but for 5 bees while defending the Acre. He had been rather excited that one of the five had been Henry, his only bee left from before the war. Due to being in a loop, the insect had managed to survive quite a long while.
Enoch had been delighted to find his supply of both animal and human hearts almost completely in tact. He spent as much time in his basement laboratory as Emma would allow, but she had taken it upon herself to socialize him a bit, stating that "after so many near-death experiences, she wanted to try for more of a family atmosphere."
Up until three days ago, Bronwyn had been spending most of her time with Claire and Olive. She was very concerned about them having nightmares and not feeling completely comfortable in our slightly changed home. However, it quickly became clear that the little ones were nothing short of overjoyed to be back in any way at all. Because of this, Bronwyn had recently taken to spending a great deal of time with Horace, who had been pretty depressed following the result of his first crush - Julius.
He was, of course, as excited as the rest of us when we were surprised by the new loop, but after the adrenaline faded he had been almost completely hopeless, stating that he would be alone forever with us sods. He had been carefully prepared by Miss P for the great possibility that was Julius's death. Up until this point, he had refused all contact other than the ymbryne, who tactfully explained to us that he was "mourning the sudden reappearance of his great loneliness." We were all rather open minded people - you had to be when you lived in close proximity to invisible boys and combustible girls - but this "was different," Horace claimed, and he "was nervous," so Julius remained in all of our eyes, a newfound best friend.
After receiving some good news, Horace had allowed Bronwyn in for visits as well. Julius had finally managed to pull through due to some carefully combined work between Mother Dust and Raphael the bone mender, but there was still the question of whether he would go back to China alone or find a new ymbryne; Horace was still relatively upset. Not to mention the fact that Julius had been greatly weakened by the whole ordeal; he had been exposed to a lethal dose of a poison that could only be described as death, bottled, so it would be some time before he was back to full strength.
Horace had been having dreams after dreams of Julius nearly every night due to his worry, so it was understandable how he managed to overlook the one that played that very night: Julius walking through the grand, front doorway with a cane and an uncharacteristically cheery Miss Peregrine on his other side.