Separate Entities//Miss Peregrine AU

Chapter Four

As Jacob and I walked into the Priest Hole, where we had made our reservations to stay for the month, I was greeted with a glass mug half filled with beer being hurled at my head. I ducked to the side and it narrowly missed me, hitting the door frame behind where my head had just been. The island hadn't been anything like I'd expected, what with power generators and old houses, and being surrounded by a graveyard of shipwrecks. But I would make the most of it. Besides, it's not like I was hoping to spend my entire stay watching the island.

I suddenly regretted not asking Abe more about the island before we came, and about the kids he had been with during his stay, but he seemed bothered every time I saw him. If Jake and I were lucky, there still might be some of the children here, despite the fact that they would likely be in their seventies or eighties by now. And as for Miss Peregrine, we'd be lucky if she was even alive. While we'd hoped she'd been still young when she sent the letter, there was something in the way Jacob had said 'maybe she's still alive' that had me doubting her existence.

"Rude!" I called into the pub, probably acting as if I was just as drunk as the men at the bar were. I quickly located the stairs and approached the man behind the bar. Jake followed behind, trying to hide the fact that he was laughing at me. "Hi," I greeted. "I'm Kallie Sanders, and this is Jacob Portman. We rented the room upstairs?" The man nodded and stepped from behind the counter, next to the staircase.

"I'm Kev. Follow me." He smiled as he spoke, then started upstairs, just as I suspected he would. The stairs creaked as we made our way up, and it was all I could do not to drop my heavy suitcase as we went. The stairs were narrow and long, so I was thankful when we made it to the top. I set down my suitcase and rolled it along with me as Kev took us on a tour of our new home. "Sorry about Benny, he got divorced recently and isn't taking it well."

Jacob laughed. "So that's why he's getting so drunk this early." I chuckled as well and set my suitcase down in one of the bedrooms Kev was showing us. I was glad to dispose of the load for now, and would wait until nighttime to unpack it. Jacob took the smaller room, and we met back with Kev in the last room, a kitchen-slash-living-slash-dining area.

"There are oil lamps and candles in the cupboards. The generators go off at ten since that gas costs too damn much. Sorry to say, the bathroom only works most of the time, but Old Reliable is out back." Jake and I looked out the window Kev was pointing at, seeing a ratty old portable toilet in the alley behind the Priest Hole. "Now I'll leave you two lovebirds to settle in-"

"Lovebirds?" Jacob seemed offended. I wasn't offended, but I was tired of hearing the same old assumptions. "No! No, we're just-"

"Cousins," I finished for him. "We were going to check the island out first before anything else, anyway. Thank you so much, Kev." With a chuckle and a nod, the man was gone down the stairs to tend to his customers.

"Cousins?" Jake turned to me when the stairs stopped creaking.

"Well, yeah. Saying 'friends' just makes it seem like we're lying. Nobody would laugh and say 'if you say so' to cousins," I pointed out. Jacob nodded and smiled at me before rolling up the sleeves of his red button up and tugged my scarf tighter around his neck. With a quick laugh, I started down the stairs, a soon followed by my new 'cousin'.

As we left the Priest Hole, I turned to Jacob and looked at my new watch that I'd bought in one of the airport gift shops. It was turned to the proper timezone, and I'd put my other one in my shorts pocket. "So, it's nine in the morning now. I saw a museum on our way here. Should we check it out?"

Jacob shrugged and nodded. "I don't see why not. They may have more information about the children's home, anyway." We began walking down the road in the general direction of the museum, and before long we were making our way in.