Secrets (a MPHFPC Fanfic)

Not Quite Over: Alma

We stood there, waiting for the dust storm to pass. I hugged my daughter and she hugged me back. I had already told her I wouldn't hide her anymore. If the Council got angry, I would put up with it. I loved her too much, and I had already lost enough time.

But then the claws of a bear reached out and yanked us backward. We struggled, but the bear was too strong. Euphora tried to electrocute him, but she was still too tired.

Then it came to me, the only person this bear could belong to. Bentham had betrayed us again. I stopped moving, seeing no point in struggling against the short-tempered bear. My heart thumped and eventually Eudora stopped struggling as well, sensing my stillness.

Soon we heard shouts from that crowd, as Jacob and Emma realized we were missing.

The ash started to move and Caul's voice cut through. "Look no further, Children! Do as I say and no harm will come to her! To them!"

"Where is Miss Peregrine?" I heard someone shout. Then I heard Jake ask the same question about Euphora.

"Right where they belong," Caul's voice said. He sounded only a few feet away. "With their family."

The rest of the ash cleared and I got a clear view of all the peculiars. They gasped in shock. I heard cries of shock and anger.

Bentham appeared at my side. "As recently as ten minutes ago," He told me. "You had my loyalty. I could have left you to the mercy of my brother days ago, but I didn't." My eyes flashed as he narrowed his. "I chose you, Alma, and your daughter here, because I believed -- naively, it seems-- that If I helped you, your wards, and my niece, you might see how unfairly you'd judged me, might finally rise above past differences and let bygones be bygones."

I felt a surge of anger and shouted. "You'll be sent to the Pitiless Waste for this!"

My brother clenched his jaw. "I'm not frightened by your little council anymore! You won't keep me down any longer!" He stamped his cane roughly and shouted. "PT, muzzle!"

Before I could say anything else, Bentham's bear had clamped it's paw over my face.

Caul strode toward us, smiling with his arms open wide. "Benny's made a choice to stand up for himself, and I, for one, congratulate him! There's nothing like a family reunion!"

Then Bentham was pulled backward by an unseen force. It must be... Millard. Someone in the crowd had come to the same conclusion, voicing their thoughts.

A knife flashed to Bentham's throat and Millard said. "Make the bear release Miss Peregrine and her daughter or else!" Bentham looked terrified, but Caul merely looked bored. He pulled an antique pepperbox pistol from a pocket and pointed it at Bentham's head. "Let them go and I'll kill you, brother."

"We made a pact!" Bentham exclaimed toward Caul. Bentham should have expected this. He knew Jack.

Caul was still quite calm. "And you caving to the demands of a nude boy with a dull knife would be breaking that pact." he cocked his gun and moved closer still to Bentham, pressing the gun against Bentham's temple. He addressed Millard. "If you make me kill my only brother, consider the other members of my family dead too."

Millard hesitated, then dropped the knife and ran. Caul made a quick swipe at him, but missed. I slipped a look at Euphora. She watched all this with a worried and angry look on her face, but she was wisely keeping quiet.

Bentham composed himself and Caul pointed his gun at me. "Now listen to me! You there, across the bridge! Let those guards go!"

They did as he asked and within seconds the balance of power had been reversed completely. They had the guns, and us.

"Boy!" Caul yelled, pointing at Jacob. My heart thudded in my chest. "Pitch that hollow into the chasm! Now make him leap!"

Jacob slowly slid himself down from the Hollow's back and whispered something to it. Then he gently pushed it over the edge, disposing of one of our most powerful weapons.

Soon everyone was in a controllable circle, crowded and packed together. Jacob was pulled out.

"He's the only one we really need alive. If you must shoot him, shoot him in the knees." Caul instructed the guards. "As for the rest of them..." He gestured and shot a bullet into the crowd. The crowd surged and I desperately searched for the one who'd been shot, needing to make sure it wasn't one of my wards. I couldn't tell who it was. "Shoot them anywhere you please!" He laughed and twirled himself like a ballerina. He was a mad man.

"And I have a special surprise for you all!" Caul said. Then he turned to a wight, whispering. The wight nodded and took Euphora's arm. He pointed a gun at her. Euphora looked at me and I looked at her and she was pulled away into the fort.

"Now, I want you all to meet a very special peculiar." Caul said, and a man appeared. "He's going to alter your memories a bit." He glanced over at me and smiled wider. "Just to add a bit of drama."

My heart stopped when I saw the peculiar.

Mark?

He smiled at me sheepishly and walked forward. His dark brown hair was longer, he had a few silver hairs in there too, and he was shaved and wearing a suit, as if today was the best day of his life.

"Sorry, mi alma. Well, sort of." I felt a sting in my chest when he called me mi alma. That's the nickname he used to call me. It meant "my soul" in Spanish. But he laughed and went to Caul's side and stood looking out over the crowd. "I'm going to need everyone to focus on me. I'm sure that won't be too hard..."

I stared at him in a daze. Was this really him? He was dead! I had seen his lifeless body, cried over it, hugged it. I couldn't move. Could barely think.

Was it really him?