Strange Worlds [Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children] Enoch O'Connor

twenty-one

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TO STAY

She was floating. Her body suspended as if it were in the middle of the ocean, drifting out. She was lost, stuck. She had no idea which was up or which was down. The air in her lungs was slowly deflating. Running out of air, a bubbled gasp left her throat, eyes following the air bubbles travelled only to have the current take them away.

No matter how hard she beat her arms and kicked at her legs, there was no moving. It felt like the surface was getting farther and farther away as if a weight were attached to her ankle, forcing her to sink. Her legs heavy as she tried to save herself, but there was no one left to come to her rescue. She was alone.

Her brother was going to leave her. Her parents didn't want her. Her only friends lived in a time she could never enter. So instead, she chose to allow herself to sink. To allow herself this piece of mind.

The concept of life, of living, seemed to have escaped ger in a moment of serenity as she watched the world slowly grow dark and cold. She closed her eyes as the darkness crept in. When did her best to hold tight to get memories: the good and the bad ones.

She was no longer scared of the thought of where she had found herself in this instant. The ocean was beautiful. It was mysterious.

However, Sophia was stuck in a place that she didn't know. The area was black and getting darker at the moment. The water grew cold as ice around her, causing a sense of claustrophobia to engulf her previous peaceful senses. Her brows furrowed as she kept her eyes closed, focusing hard on the memories she wouldn't lose. The happiest ones she had were gone.

The echo of the pap pap pap of Ricky's gun rattled around her. She could hear her mothers profanities echoed. The disappointment in her father's voice as he spoke with her mother about the cost of their psychology bills.

The sound of a clap ricochet through the ocean, a force sensing her back as a sharp pain filled her cheek and brought her back to the cold dark depths that had become her life, and suddenly, she was suffocating.

It's like the darkness had utterly ripped away from her breath. Then the once serene feeling quickly vanished as a dark figure rose from the dark depths below. Thick tendrils struck at her feet, and deep black eyes glared into her own.

A scream fell from her throat, taking in water as she thrashed about, trying her best to rid of this monster. Of her grandfathers killer. Of her nightmare that had become real life. Of the genuine terror that wasn't made up as everyone had tried to make them believe it was.

"Sophia! Sophia!" I woke with a scream bottled in my throat. The taste of bile on my tong as I remembered the feeling of blood on my hands, the coldness of Grandpa Portman's body. The missing eyes. I shuddered, trying to get my breath back in the dark of night. Noting how my cheek still stung from the nightmare.

Seeing my brothers face before my own instead of the monster allowed for me to breathe. I clung to my breath, keeping it there, noting the realness of it all. I was okay. Jacob was okay. But our only relative that had loved us was gone. Our only friend was angered at our depression. Our parents hated us, evident in how my father rolled back over to sleep once I was no longer screaming from my night terror.

"Did you slap me?" I asked though I wasn't accusing him. My hand covered my face and looked away from the single bed in the corner of the room. Jacob's brows furrowed.

"No." he shot out, feeling accused nonetheless. "What happened?"

"I had a night terror. I was drowning... I was alone with it." I whispered, wanting air, wanting to get away from this suffocating room. "I need air."

"Okay, yeah." Jacob nodded, sitting up from the bed and putting on his shoes and coat. He grabbed mine and brought them over, watching as I slowly put on my boots and shrugged on my jacket.

We found ourselves slowly and as quietly as possible, walk down the stairs. My hands were numbing at the cold, breath curling before my mouth. Jacob shoved his hands into his coat pocket as we walked towards the pier, watching the ocean lap up the sides of the rocky shore.

"What happened?" Jacob asked again as I wrapped my arms before me and buried my cold hands into my pits. I took in a deep breath as I took in the salty scent—the stern lashing at my face, keeping me present.

"I couldn't breath," I whispered. Jacob could barely hear me over the ocean and wind, causing me to repeat myself a little louder. "I can't breathe around them. I-i can't be with them."

By 'them', he had known it was our parents. His gaze softened, knowing it wasn't the right time to bring up the idea of living in the loop. But it wasn't as unimaginable anymore.

"Who slapped you?" he asked, tone stiff, teeth clenched as he too remembered what it felt to be slapped by their parent.

"Mom," I replied. Tears were freezing my cheeks, worsening the sunburn. "I lost all my happiness. I felt what it'd be like to go home. I-I can't go home."

"It's not a home." Jacob agreed. I turned to him, both our faces holding a stiff frown.

A figure silhouetted in the shining moonlight behind Jacob took my attention. My eyes squinted against the cold wind as I grabbed hold of Jacob's arm to steady my panic.

"Jacob. Turn around very slowly." I managed to diaper through my wide eyes panic as the silhouette of a tall tentacled shape was seen on the horizon. Jacob turned slowly, panic already rising within him from my fear alone. "You see it too, don't you?"

"Fuck." Jacob swore through his teeth, body freezing in fright.

"I think it's about time we ran," I said, hand tight around Jacob's yellow rain jacket.

"Where?" he managed in panic.

"I don't know... It's blocking the loop." I replied tears in my eyes. "Let's go back to the motel. Pretend we didn't see it. Perhaps it hasn't seen us. We'll tell Mis Peregrine tomorrow. Hope to God it's not there in the morning."

Jacob turned to me with a silent nod, swallowing his fear as we watched it frozen in place. It didn't move once as we went back to our room. We didn't get a wink of sleep after that, watching our windows in hopes we wouldn't see that thing in the shadows.