Separate Entities//Miss Peregrine AU

Chapter Fourteen

"What is he waiting for?" Emma asked impatiently. I glared at her, tired and cranky from all my blood loss. She asked it like we knew!

"Well, how are we to know?" I snapped. Millard rested a hand on my arm, calming me down a little. "We can only guess." the hostile tone in my voice had left. My last word was stifled by a yawn.

Millard spoke next, expressing the ideas we all had thought of earlier. "Perhaps he's waiting to be picked up by colleagues. Or maybe he's waiting for the tide to go down so that he can row away."

"In my boat? Are you daft?" Millard sniffed, upset at Emma's insult, but before he could say anything else, three bombs dropped elsewhere on the island.

"Millard, do any bombs fall in this area?" Jacob asked, which drove me to hope that Golan would get hit by one. Then I remembered that he had the two ymbrynes with him, and Golan getting bombed would mean the birds would get bombed, too.

Millard furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "My studies were merely behavioral. Bombs were not on the list of subjects. Sorry," he replied. Enoch scoffed.

"Wonderful, thanks for all the help, Mill," he sneered; I swear I could have punched him.

"Well, at least he's done some good. We wouldn't have found the wight if Millard hadn't followed him." Enoch rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're only defending him because you like him. And you're one to talk! All you've done so far is get shot." My urge to punch him only grew stronger, but Millard took my hand and squeezed it, calming me down once more. All I wanted was some goddamn sleep.

Jacob spoke up, ending the conversation. "Em, do you have any more boats laying around anywhere?" She shook her head.

"No, so it looks like we'll have to swim across," she replied.

"And risk getting shot to bits?' Millard objected. He made a good point, but what other chance would we be getting?

Emma smiled halfheartedly. "We'll come up with a better plan when we're out there," she said, brushing her hair behind her ear. Millard took his hand from my arm as he crossed his over his chest.

"Improvised suicide, what a lovely idea," he muttered. "Are there any better ideas?" Aside from Enoch, who proposed that his clay soldiers could help - which made no sense, as they'd be ruined by the water - we all had to agree that swimming was our only way of stopping the wight from getting away with the two ymbrynes.

"It's decided, then. Who's coming?" Emma asked. Jacob raised his hand immediately - to no one's surprise, as this was his ex-therapist - and so did Bronwyn.

"It's best if I go - he won't see me coming," Millard said, not bothering to raise his hand as I was the only one who would see him do it.

I faced him immediately, taking his hand in mine and squeezing it. "Be careful. I can't swim very well and I'm the only one who can see you, so don't go getting hurt out there," I said, then turned to Jacob. "That goes for you too, mister. You're my best friend - I can't lose you." Jake nodded, a solemn smile on his face, though it looked more like a grimace. I knew the changes of nobody getting hurt out there were slim to none, but I had to have something I usually didn't - hope. I had always been one to give up when things looked hopeless, but I was finally ready to change that.

"Well, four will be enough," Emma decided. "I hope you all can swim." With that, they set off down the beach, leaving no time for goodbyes except for a single kiss to my forehead from Millard and a quick hug from Jake. As soon as they reached the water, a fighter plane flew overhead. I was half expecting it to drop a bomb and take my best friends away from me, but nothing happened, to everyone's relief.