Apiston family tree

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"Ari! Don't leave me Ari!" I turned and stared as my little brother Hugh tried to stop me leaving the house by tugging on the back of my jumper. I slowly removed his soft hands and left without so much as a goodbye. I heard Hugh's screams in the background but I tried to ignore the noise - it would only make me feel worse. I was leaving my family, my home, just to get away from Normals who weren't different like me. I wasn't going to any old loop, I wasn't going to find an Ymbryne, I was just leaving to Gert away from it all.

After three days of rowing, searching, and crying/mourning over the loss of my family, I came across a little island. "Home!" I yelled, and a clear, fine echo came back saying home. That was proof enough for me to say that this island was deserted. I jump out of my rickety old wooden boat and dragged my luggage onto its white sand beach. I dumped my bags on the ground and rushed to climb a coconut tree. From the top, what I saw was beyond imagining. It was beyond description. It was beautiful. I let myself down and ran into the woods, ready for a new start in my new home.

Eeeeekkk! Crash! Bang! I hid in my coconut tree treehouse and tried to block the sound of sirens and bombs from my ears. "Please stop!" I whispered over and over in my head, bug it wouldn't. And I was failing myself at trying to think it was not there. These sounds brought back so many memories. It sounded like the daily family wars we used to have, or all the annoying noises Hugh uses to make. When I think about it now, Hugh would be a lot older. I knew I was. I'd been on this very island for eight years, so that put me at twenty, and that would put Hugh at thirteen.

Suddenly, a heard a boat pull up onto the island. It wasn't safe. "Go, go, go!" I shouted to myself. I made a quick and scruffy pile in my trunk of all my stuff worth taking (which was all of it) and rushed down my vine ladder. I took to running my heart out to the other side of the island, where my boat lay. I threw my trunk in with a thrash and pushed it off without getting in myself. I raced against the waves to get in and paddled until my arms dropped off.

The nearest island wasn't for another hundred yard of clear, blue ocean, without so much as a wreckage in sight. The further I rowed, the more distant the island got, and the more tired and weepy I felt. But pretty soon, a new island came insight - an inhabited one. But for the first time, I didn't care. I just wanted to get away from the war that had just been added to my home island. I felt alone, like no one understood me, but it was better this way. The less people who understood, the less people who would get hurt.

"Ship! There's a ship!" A man yelled frantically from a nearby harbor. "Don't be so stupid, Ed! Its just a little girl in a little boat!" Said another, just as close. As my boat turned into the docks, the two men helped me out. "Now, tell me why you were out sailing in the middle of World War II?" Asked Ed, in a sarcastic, drawling voice. "I... I..." I stammered, but couldn't quite get the words out. "Calm down, Ed. Let her breathe. She's obviously a war baby and needs some space. Let's leave her to it." Said the other. "All right, John." Muttered Ed, and the two men walked away.

And I ran. I ran and ran until I was enveloped in forests of trees. There I sat on a tree stump and began to cry. And cry. And cry. I cried until night fall, and throughout it, too. All I could think of was my island, and my family who were probably about to die and I had just left them when I was the only one who could protect them. Hugh, mum, and dad were all about to die. I'd only see them again when I die, too.
I stared down at myself and punished the ground. My knuckles began to bleed from the hard impact, but I didn't care. I just wanted to not be peculiar, to be normal, live a normal life with those normal people around me.

Then I heard a noise. It was the sound of someone standing on a twig and the twig snapping. My head spun round. A girl with wild dark hair faced me. She didn't say anything, she just plucked a daisy out of the ground and walked off. How strange! I thought to myself. But now wasn't the time to discuss in my head all the weird things that girl could be doing with that one single daisy, when around me were thousands more. I needed to find a place to stay. Then the girl returned, this time with any other one. Another two, actually. One was an adult and the other a teenage girl around the same age as the first one. The adult wandered over to me. "Are you Miss Apiston?" She asked. I nodded slowly before wiping the tears off my face. She smiled and patted my shoulder. "Come with me, I have something to show you."

I followed reluctantly and asked the two girls their names. "I'm Emma, and this is Fiona. Don't be too surprised if she doesn't talk, Hugh is the only one who can make her do it." I nodded and said I was Ariana Apiston, and as they saw it, Hugh Apiston's sister.
"Wow! I never thought we would ever actually meet Hugh's sister! I mean, none of us ever really talk about our previous homes, but when we do, your always his star subject, Ari! O can call you that, can't I?" Said Emma. I nodded. "Sure."
Pretty soon, we were at the door of a large castle-like house. It was a beautiful sight, and I daren't say I'd be too surprised of I saw Rapunzel's hair coming out of a window.

The lady walked into the house and Fiona wandered round the back of the house. Emma stared down at me. "Hugh won't recognise you, you know. He said you were twelve when he last saw you." I nodded. "I won't recognise him either, he was five." I said. Emma smiled at me. Despite the fact that she was about sixteen, I was still a while head shorter then her. I took after my mum, who was a shorty like me. My dad was tall, so I supposed  Hugh might take after him. Me and Emma followed Miss Peregrine inside.