Scorched Earth: The Prequel to Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children (editing)

Chapter One

June 15, 1930

Wicklow, Ireland

I don't know what I did this time to not receive my dinner, but I was desperately trying to figure it out as the familiar pain in my stomach began to settle in even worse than usual. Even if I knew what it was I did, apologizing to my father wasn't going to get me a meal anytime soon. My only hope was to wait until tomorrow.

Still, I'd rather know what it was. I didn't remember hurling anything at him or trying to push him across the room with the invisible force he was so afraid of. In fact, I hadn't used my power in over a week.

Sometimes he was just too angry at my existence, or too drunk to remember to feed me. I still didn't understand why it had to be like this, why he had to hurt me. My mother once told me they would always love me, but that was before she left.

It wasn't always like this.

Our family used to be happy, and I wasn't born moving things with my mind.

My brother, Emmett, was treated normally and free to do whatever he pleased. We were twins, but only I was able to control things at will without touching them.

I got along well with my brother. Father never let him near me though, so I only saw hime when no one was around and we wouldn't get caught. He considered me dangerous and locked me away in a room with no windows, and a small mattress without sheets or pillows for me to sleep on. The only other things in the room were a large wool blanket that made my skin itchy and was often too hot, and a bucket for me to use the restroom of which smelled horrid. I tried to stay as far away from it as possible.

Although the room had no windows, I could clearly tell that night was settling in. I crawled to a different corner of the room which I hadn't left in almost a month. If it wasn't for Emmett coming in every chance he could I would have surely gone crazy, or at least that's what Emmett said happened to people locked up like this.

I settled with my back against the wall and tried to think of the beach that was a few miles away. It was always the same picture in my head. I'd be hiking up the green hills and I'd come to the top and see a beautiful beach with the ocean kissing the sand and retreating quickly only to do it again.

I think I saw the ocean once when I was too little to remember. Perhaps I went there on a family day trip and we were allowed to run along the beach without our shoes and it was a warm and sunny day, something that wasn't too frequent here. Or maybe I just wished for it so bad I had implanted a fake memory to cope with my feeling of abandonment. I thought about how one day I would leave this place. I would run until I couldn't breathe and then I'd keep running without ever looking back. I'm only six years old, I thought. But I was the bravest six year old I ever knew.

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Like most nights lately, I was wide awake, and if I could sleep it was only half sleeping and jolting upright when I heard a noise somewhere in the house. I was used to this cycle now, but I just couldn't handle being tired all the time.

I liked to practice levitating things in the room, thought there wasn't much to practice with. It also isn't easy to do when you're tired, and it took a lot of strength and focus just to lift something small!

My body was stiff from sitting in the same position for too long and so I rolled over onto my stomach to stretch out. As soon as I did a sharp pain jabbed me in the gut from the inside out as to remind me that I haven't eaten in nearly three days. I was also sure I had a broken rib because I could feel something sticking out of my side and it hadn't gone away. Every time I took a deep breath my entire abdomen was overtaken with pain.