Is there hope for anything? Is there hope for survival? Is there hope for you? Or are you completely lost to the world? Travelling to Miss Peregrine's loop with your ymbryne Miss Avocet was a struggle. Your loop was raided by wights and hollows...
"Children! Come here!" An unusual cheery male voice rings through the house.
"Who's that?" I ask Bronwyn. "Whose voice is that?"
"I don't know." She says.
"Children!" A familiar voice rings out. Miss Peregrine. "Come here."
We all start to walk down the stairs but stop at the second landing. We can see a darker skinned man with a white afro at the door. No, not man. I think. Wight! His hand is not a hand, it is a blade, a blade currently held to Jake's neck. Emma gasps beside me.
"Children, would you make your way down the stairs please?" Mr. Barron says, not asking us but commanding us.
"I give the orders in this house, Mr. Barron!" Miss Peregrine says angrily. No one moves from the landing of the staircase.
"Not today." Mr. Barron grins, almost feline. "You should know that Jake has served his purpose. If you value his life I suggest everyone does as they are told! Children!"
"Shussh! No one tells my children what to do. Children, come down here, please."
"Miss Peregrine—"
"I thought I told you to be quiet!" Miss Peregrine tells Mr. Barron with a very pointed look, reminding him who is the boss. I take this opportunity to wonder where Miss Avocet is. I hope Mr. Barron doesn't know she is here.
"Children, for Jake's safety, we are going to do what Mr. Barron asks." Miss Peregrine continues. "He wishes to take me with him to his rendezvous in Blackpool. So for his protection, he would like me to assume bird-form, preferably caged... And he'd like you to make your way into a lockable room, such as the parlor. As he won't relieve Jake if he fears an attack could be mounted upon him once he loses his leverage. Correct, Mr. Barron?"
Mr. Barron Looks slightly lost for words, but then nods. We all walk down the stairs as instructed by Miss Peregrine, not Mr. Barron, and head into the Parlor, where Miss Avocet is hiding behind the door, a finger to her lips to tell us not to speak to her so Mr. Barron doesn't know she's here.
"It's been my privilege to care for you all. Goodbye, my children." Miss Peregrine says and closes the doors. Not long after, the doors reopen and Jake is shoved in by none other than Mr. Barron himself. He then locks the doors and we watch him leave through a stained glass window, with Miss Peregrine in bird form trapped in a cage too small for her.
"It's getting dark. You won't even be able to see the hollow's shadows. We have to stay inside. It's the only place we stand a chance." Jake says as Mr. Barron disappears into the loop entrance.
"Wait, he brought a hollow? Wasn't kidnapping Miss Peregrine enough?" I say, feeling nauseated. Another loop, another hollow. Another raid, another group of children. More death, more destruction. More bad memories, more bad nightmares. Oh shit, shit, oh shit. No, don't lose the plot. I think to myself before I get too carried away. I know that there is a hollow coming. This doesn't have to be a repeat of what happened in my own loop. I can save these children this time. I can transform into Jake, use his peculiarity and see the hollows. See the hollows and kill the hollows. And I won't be alone. Jake can help me.
"Jake's right." Miss Avocet says. "We all need to stay inside. Now, children, go find anything in here that you can use as a weapon. Make sure all the doors are locked and the windows are latched. Everything must be sealed up tight. Now, quickly, quickly." We all arm ourselves with gardening tools, metal objects, anything we can find. I make a few weapons out of my skin, but Miss Avocet asks me not to as she believes the younger children shouldn't have access to proper weapons like bows, arrows, swords and knives that they can hurt themselves on. I tell her that technically they are really old and should be properly protected because this is a hollow we are talking about, but my complaints go on deaf ears. She told me that technically we won't be battling the hollow because it can't get inside here as we have sealed the entire room off. She has a good point. If a hollow was to get in, how would it? I think we have done our job a little too well of sealing off the room. So I do what the others are doing—Go find a metal poker or a baseball bat or something. Even though I believe Miss Avocet about a hollow not being able to reach us in here, my mind still chimes with thoughts like: What the hell is a gardening tool gonna do against a hollow? Annoy it most likely.
"Now, children, now that you are all here, there's a few rules." Miss Avocet says, holding Miss Peregrine's crossbow. "Your primary job is to stay safe. Leave the hollow to me. I don't want to see any heroics. Now, those of you with garden tools, I must insist that you—"
Suddenly, the wall behind Miss Avocet smashes open and... nothing appears. OH SHIT!! So much for 'the hollows won't be able to get in' speech. I think it just found a way in.
"Miss Avocet!" I scream as she is lifted off the ground by an invisible force and sucked out the huge hole in the wall. I transform into Jake and watch helplessly as her eyes are ripped out and she is flung away like a ragdoll by the ugly beast less than fifteen metres from me.
Jake grabs the discarded crossbow off the floor and aims it at the empty space. I look at the hollow, using Jake's peculiarity. I have seen this before. I have seen the hollow bursting through the wall. Where have I seen it?
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Oh yeah, that's right, in Horace's projected, prophetic dream. Wait, but the next dream he had after this was... OH SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hey. Sorry, I know I said Enoch would be in this chapter, but I had to break this chapter up because it was getting too long. I'll go write the next one now. See you soon!
