Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children: Book Seven

The Vision

(Sorry to those of you this will annoy... I decided to go with a plot based romance thing. Don't worry though... plenty of fluff to come regardless)

POV Third Person Omniscient

Horace sat rigid-backed at the dinner table with his eyes rolled back into his scull, every eye on him. No one attempted to put him to bed as usual; they were just waiting. No one had expected this for quite a long time. Weren't they clear of all the danger now?

Julius was gaping shamelessly. He had known that Horace was a prophet, but had been under the impression that he simply dreamt peacefully, then magically, peculiarly woke up chock full of new information. This was not at all what he had imagined.

Hugh, who had been sitting on Horace's other side, jolted as if he had just remembered something, then quickly stood up and gripped his shoulders tightly. And not for nothing, apparently, for not five seconds later, Horace began shaking and convulsing violently beneath him. This continued for about fifteen seconds, and Miss P quickly explained that the vision was entering him with these convulsions.
All of a sudden, Horace went rigid again and Hugh sat back down to watch with everyone else. Horace began mouthing wordlessly again, but after a moment the words began to take shape. Very quietly at first, he began to speak:

"Once upon a peculiar time, there lived a child of earth and vine," He paused, and Fiona's eyes widened. Hugh gripped her hand firmly.

Horace continued, louder now, "until she fell from cliffs above and swiftly severed a life of love."

Too, there was a human flame who lived despite her fathers blame.

She finally cut her steel binds, finding many others of her same kind.

Then son of light was touched and soon he dared escape his early tomb.

I see another coming here; you'll need them all or Abaton's end will be near.

To find the final four, you must understand, all eight have cheated their departure from this land.

I, myself, am one of the eight. I pray you'll find me and mend death's gate.

You'll all soon uncover my heart's beating rhythm. Sincerely all, Myron Bentham."

Then Horace collapsed sideways into Julius's frail arms. Miss Peregrine allowed a tear to escape, and the children looked frightened.

***

For a long moment, no one even blinked. Then, "What in the absolute bloody hell was that rubbish?!" Enoch yelled frustratedly. "What the hell happened? Bentham tapped into his brain or something and he thinks he can control us? Didn't the blasted idiot die twice already?!! Beating heart my left arse cheek..." he muttered. "There's no way that ruddy bastard's still alive," he claimed fiercely. "There isn't..." he tried to convince himself, "is there?" He looked to Miss P, giving up his internal battle, and finally everyone shifted their sharp stare from himself to the Ymbryne. She was, however, staring at Horace. Upon feeling their gazes, she quickly snapped to attention.

"Mister O'Connor, after everything we have seen in this past year, do you truly believe that? In the past, I never would have imagined... no... but we have done the impossible. We have entered Abaton, we have killed a near-immortal being, we have saved our world. It is only a logical conclusion that my dear brother, Bentham, may still be alive as well."

She seemed to be in shock, but it was quickly fading as she grew more and more concerned. Thankfully, my brother's cryptic message seems to be fairly straightforward, despite the fact that all of us had been hoping for a bit of peace for a time. It seems, children, that we have a similar mission to that of Noor and the seven. We must find eight people who have defied death in order to secure Abaton and save the future of Peculiardom."

Emma spoke up, "but it says we only have to find four. The first part of the prophecy has to be the first four, right? Me from escaping my dad, Julius for surviving Caul's touch, Fiona for surviving imprisonment and a fall from the cliff, and..."

"Bloody Bentham!" interrupted Hugh. How are we supposed to find him? Unless Horace dreams it or he falls out of the blasted sky, it's a dead end. We have no clues whatsoever!"

"We will wait for Horace to awake, and ask him if he saw anything other than the prophecy. It was a bit different than usual due to its being brought on by my brother tapping into Horace's peculiarity, but surely he must have seen-"

"Hold on a moment," a bleary-eyed Julius cut in, "I'm relatively new to this whole 'saving the world' business, but there aren't exactly no clues."

Everyone stared at him.

"Come on. Fourth line from the end; think."
All of a sudden, Millard gasped. "I see another coming here! So we just wait for whomever arrives in our loop who has evaded death and hopefully they will know more."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Miss Peregrine smiled approvingly then sent everyone off to bed, claiming that they would all "speak more on the matter after a good night's rest." Having recently come-to, Horace snorted at the "good night's rest" comment. "At least try, Mister Somnusson," she pleaded, "we need you most of all. You are our expert on dreams and prophecies. We can also pay Francesca-now Miss Bittern-a visit in the morning. I would like to have spoken to Esmeralda herself, but dear Frannie's nearly as good as now that she has graduated. She has studied closely with Miss Avocet for fifty years of Ymbryne training; there is no one better to ask about her specialties."

All of the children nodded and began filing up the staircase, Hugh and Horace each holding on to one of Julius's arms.