Millard Nullings: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Part 21

Millard awoke to a throbbing pain in his head, and was surrounded by the bodies of the deceased wights. Some of them had run away, the cowards they are, including the man in the maroon suit.

He opened his eyes to find everyone gathered around something. He was the last to wake up. He thought, for just a moment, they were celebrating. Looking around, Millard knew they had won. Then he heard the sobbing, and remembered what had happened just before he fell unconscious.

He got up, and hobbled over to the group, scared of what he might find. He surveyed the faces of the others. Every single face had tears streaming down it. Everyone was covered in cuts and bruises, and were caked in dirt. Millard found Alice, and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back, which made both of them feel better.

When he finally gathered the courage to look down, he saw Fabian, Jamie, and Gwen crouched on the ground around Gideon. They were crying the hardest.

Gideon's head was resting on Gwen's lap, and she was gently stroking his hair. Jamie was holding his hand, desperate for him to squeeze back. Fabian was furiously running his hands over his brothers wound, which had blood flowing from it.

"Heal, damn it! HEAL!" Fabian screamed, choking back tremendous sobs.

He was making some progress, but it was going slowly. No one knew if Fabian could make him well enough before his life slipped away.

Gideon was pale. So, so pale. He usually looked like he was about to die, but still alive. But now he looked....lifeless. Fabian had closed the wound enough to stop the bleeding, and now simply threw himself over his brother, desperate for him to live. Desperate to hear a heartbeat.

They waited.

And they waited.

It was silent, except for the cries of the peculiars. Millard couldnt bear to look at Gwen, Jamie, or Fabian, and their wails of devastation piereced his heart like an icy dagger. Suddenly, Jamie gasped. He started crying harder, but was now smiling. Everyone was eager to hear what had caused the sudden change in emotion. Fabian was too busy crying to notice anything Jamie did.

"He squeezed my hand!" He said excitedly

Jamie checked for a pulse, and started sobbing somehow harder.

"He's Alive!" He said, barely louder than a whisper.

Millard's heart soared. Gideon had become important to him, and he knew he was important to others.

Everyone starting jumping up and down and shouting. Fabian was still oblivious to the good news. Gideon slowly raised his free hand, and gently hugged Fabian.

"Jeez, who died?" Gideon said softly.

Fabian's head snapped up, looked at his twin, and tackled him with a bone-crushing hug. The group let them have their moment, then each gave him a hug. The Luxtenebris family members stood in a cluster, hugging Gideon. Millard heard Gwen faintly whisper

"I'm so glad you're okay."

***********

Once everyone had calmed down, gotten a chance to hug Gideon, (who still looked pretty pale, but otherwise alright), and had Fabian heal them as best he could (he had used quite a bit of energy on Gideon) Jamie stood up to say something.

"We came here to destroy whatever or whoever took our peculiarities, as well as get them back. We did get them back, but haven't destroyed whatever took them," A playful smile spread across his face

"Or so we thought." He paused again

"You see when Gideon got shot, a wave of energy came off him, knocking out us and killing everyone else."

"Did I hurt any civilians?" Gideon interrupted

"No, I checked. Anyone outside the battle wasn't effected." Jamie assured him.

"I also found the contraption that took our peculiarities. Gideon's energy destroyed it. We won.

Millard gasped. It was over. They had won.