Some Strange Type of Peculiar Love

Alive

Hugh's POV

Sleep. I want sleep. Obviously I want Fiona, but I want sleep too. But noooooo, Jake had to go on another one of his dead grandpa adventures. Ok, maybe that was harsh, but I've been up for 18 hours. But alas, I was shaken again.
"Buzz off!" I growled.
"Stop whining and get out of bed. Miss Blackbird is downstairs waiting for you."
I sat up and looked at the red clock once again, it was 5:15 a.m.
"Why?"
"They need you in America."
My eyes widened, "America?"

An hour later I was in a Marrowbone bus station, but still in the present. Millard gave me a bag of stew sandwiches and what not as I was leaving. Everyone stared at my black bag, was is weird to carry a lunch and a change of clothes in the present?

Miss Peregrine was with Enoch, Jake, and Emma, who were all tapping their foot on the ground.
"Oh great, we're saved, bee boy is here." Enoch's face softened a moment later, "sorry."
According to Miss Blackbird, the bus would be here in a half an hour. I still had no idea why I was here. All I knew is the waiting area was a depressing and bleak grey, there was even a little jail for drunks. I laughed and thought of Melina.
"What's in the bag?" Jake asked. I opened it.
"Um stew sandwiches, Olive's copy of Peculiar Planet: North America, two of the sheep sweaters, some socks and underwear for everyone, oh and a gift for Jake."
I handed him the small wooden box just like Noor told me to.
"Who's it from?"
I winked, "guess."
He opened the box and an amber ray of light shone.
Emma said something nasty and Enoch bit at her for it. Enoch leaned over my shoulder and whispered to me.
"Got any bees left?"
"Just Henry."
"Is his wing all better?"
I nodded, "he's not going to fight."
Enoch shook his head, "no, but see that fatso? He tripped me earlier just to be an arse." He pointed to a very large man with a white tank top and dark washed jeans that barley stayed on his hips. He was angrily glaring at a woman with an African headscarf and muttered something about a bomb.
"Go buzz him around."
I laughed and sent Henry out. Miss Peregrine pretended not to smile as the man swatted around the air. The woman in the headscarf approached us.
"I don't know how you're controlling that little bee, but thank you. Mashallah."
"Our bus is here."
I nodded at the woman and Emma tugged me into the car. Miss Peregrine already disappeared.
I fell asleep on Enoch's shoulder.

Our first stop was in eye-oh-wa Jake told me. The screen above showed some information, as if we were staying.

Des Moines, Iowa
66° F
11:23 p.m.
Next departure: 25 mins

"Jake, what's a mins?"
Jake laughed as we stepped of the bus to use the restroom and grab some food.
"It's an aberration for minutes."
"Oh."
Enoch and I had some hotdogs as Jake called them, they were terrible. We back on the bus and just as I was falling asleep again, Enoch gasped. The bus was nearly stopped and one nearly identical to ours was smashed on the road next to us. Enoch grabbed my hand and dragged me through the glass doors despite the drivers bickering. There were flashing lights and sirens that made me dizzy. Jake tore off for the merry forest and I followed him. We ran about 15 feet before we saw a girl with an eyepatch. Miss Blackbird showed me the girls photograph on the way to the station, her name was Ellery and she wore an eyepatch. Only now, the eyepatch was gone and worms were crawling in her empty socket. I turned around and emptied the contents of my stomach. When I was done heaving I looked at Ellery. Her leg was at an odd angle, definitely broken. She also had a large gash on her head.
"Help!" Emma yelled.
Enoch ran for the lights screaming.
"They made me cry." Ellery said, "the man and woman with the blank eyes made me cry."
I nodded sympathetically.
"I thought we were friends." She cried.
"Who?" Jake asked, but she ignored me.
"But he took her away and the woman with the blank eyes took my maderworm." Ellery started to sob, "she'll die in the cold, it's so cold." She started to drift off but Jake kelts shaking her awake. He turned to Emma, "she's losing a lot of blood, it isn't even cold out."
Jake shook Ellery awake again. Suddenly she grabbed his arm.
"Kill them."
"We will."
"But don't hurt the girl."
"The woman wight?"
Ellery shook her head.
"The girl who took me, she didn't want to. They made her."
"How do you know?"
"She had bruises and he kicked her. She walked crooked," she sobbed again, "she tried to save me."
I ran out the woods to find Enoch arguing with a doctor.
"This is not a 'prank' a girl needs help!"
"Help! She's dying!" The doctor and his friend took a stretcher and ran it over, I realized I was covered in her blood where as Enoch looked completely fine. They ran back with us and pushed Jake and Emma away.
"What's happening!" One of them shouted. I pushed them aside to see Ellery shake and silky strings form around her, usually it took a day or two to age forward, was it different because she was injured or because she was in distress? Jake pointed up to the sky and a flying machine landed.
"Helicopter!" Jake shouted. Miss Peregrine got out with Miss Wren and Miss Cuckoo and two other men I didn't know.
"The girl." She moaned."
"What was her name?" Jake asked. Ellery's skin was almost translucent and her eyes were milky like the wights.
"I don't know, she didn't speak, but she grew the prettiest roses..." Ellery drifted off and one of the men injected something into her vein. Before I even knew what I was doing I was running back to the crash. On the bus I could see it now clear as day. Fiona's vines and purple roses were tangled into the bus. I fell to my knees.
"Hugh, Hugh!"
Emma shook my shoulder.
She kneeled down in front of me. Tears streamed down my face.
"L-look." I pointed. Emma was crying now too.
"Fiona!" She screamed. She ran to the bus but a man in a dark uniform stopped her.
"Fiona!" She screamed again trying to jump over the man.
"Are you looking for someone."
"My friend, is anyone in there?"
"There were only 3 casualties, but they were all older men."
I breathed a sigh of relief.
I found you.

3/20/21