Healing - Book One

five

I sleep against the steam train's window for the majority of the journey, completely missing all the sights I should have been taking in for the first time. Aggie wakes me by gently shaking my shoulder.

"We've nearly arrived, sugar."

I peel open my eyelids, and I'm blinded by the sunlight streaming into the window. The outside is passing by at a much slower rate than when I'd last seen. We're surrounded by tiny, different coloured houses and the ocean is silently sitting in the distance.

Aggie grins, her face full of excitement, as we pull into the train station. The sign reads 'Pembleton'.

Clutching a suitcase each, the two of us parade onto the platform; the air is significantly warmer and I'm convinced that I can already smell the sea, despite never smelling it before.

Outside the station, in the town, everywhere is buzzing with life. A little market is in full swing in the central square, small children run about the streets with hoops and balls.

"Ah - I remember this." Aggie murmurs under her breath.

"I thought you and mother grew up in Oxford?"

"Your mother did. I grew up here." She extends her arms, as if she's trying to take in everything. "It just so happens I was in the same circumstances you're in now. Alma and I grew up in the peculiar children's home here. I suppose our home must have been her first place to go."

I don't reply to her, for I'm contemplating why I've been told lies all these years. Multiple lies. However, my thoughts are interrupted when I hear somebody call Aggie's name. My aunt looks down the Main Street to where the call came from. Aggie puts down my suitcase and totters ahead in her heels, into the open arms of a girl.

The girl is tall, roughly my age and has almost white hair which floats around her shoulders. She wears strange, platform shoes and her eyes are large and green. Her and Aggie embrace for a while, before my aunt pulls away and examines the girl.

"You're all grown up, Emma darling!"

"It has been a while, Aggie." The girl laughs, before her enormous eyes flit to meet mine. I suddenly feel shy. "You must be Violet. I'm Emma. It's wonderful to finally meet you." She chirps, her voice sounds unnaturally mature. Her dainty hand extends to me, and I shake it politely. "Miss Peregrine sent me to get you, she'll be expecting you soon."

Emma takes my suitcase from me and the three of us walk through the little town together. I learn that Emma is, not surprisingly, peculiar, however not in the same way I am. She has complete control over air and is almost weightless, the weighted shoes she wears keep her grounded.

Emma leads us out of the town and we begin the walk across what turns out to be numerous fields until we reach the edge of a forest. I hesitate to follow the other two, my mother had always told me stories of horrific things which occurred in dark forests.

"It's alright, Violet. We're almost there." Emma tells me reassuringly, I begin cautiously walk a few feet behind them into the thick vegetation. Fortunately for me, it isn't that big of a forest, and we soon arrive at a large, red brick wall. A small picket gate sits in the only visible archway. Emma unlatches it with her free hand and holds it open for Aggie and me. I'm faced with a lush, colourful garden. The air smells of freshly mowed grass, and beyond the flowerbeds is a large, rectangular house with a shiny red front door. Many children, all varying in age frolic around the grass. However, most of them stop playing and begin to run in our direction. Aggie is soon in the centre of a gaggle of children, over a dozen arms are wrapped around her.

"Jake?" Emma calls across the garden. An older child, a boy this time, looks over at her. He responds in a thick accent which cannot be British. Emma holds my case out at arm's length and shakes it. "Could you take these to the empty room, please?"

"Sure." The boy runs a hand through his dark hair as he approaches us. I flash a smile at him, and he returns the favour. Jake takes the cases from Emma and Aggie and carries them up the path.

I feel Emma link her arm with mine. She positions us to look at Aggie and her adoring fans. She points a thin finger at a little girl in a pink frock in amongst the group.

"That's Claire."

I watch the girl closely, and to me she looks very normal.

"Is she peculiar?"

"Of course! Everyone here is. Claire has a mouth with barbed teeth in the back of her head."

Claire is lifted onto my aunt's hip and the two share a conversation at each other's eye level. Emma points out another small girl, this time with a head of brown curls which fan out around her face.

"That's Bronwyn, she's the strongest little thing you'll ever meet."

"What's his name?" I enquire, pointing to a boy wearing a striped shirt.

"Hugh, bees live inside his stomach. Those are the twins." Emma refers to two small figures dressed head to toe in white cloth. I decide against asking about their peculiarities - since it is rather apparent that the cloth is hiding something sinister beneath.

Emma and I begin to stroll towards the house; we pass two more children playing chess on the ground. Emma introduces them as Horace and Millard. The latter of the two is, in fact, invisible, which is why I was confused when I saw a seemingly empty pair of trousers and shirt sat at one end of the chess board. We also meet Fiona, who was tending to her vegetable patch.

Once we reach the front door, Emma stands still on the doorstep expectantly. I wait a few seconds, just to see if she's going to open the door. Only then do I reach for the doorknob, but the door swings open before I have it in my grasp. A tall woman appears from behind the door, smoking a pipe. Rings of smoke escape her lips as she smiles at me: I'm not sure whether to be intimidated or not. Her face is pointed and bird-like, one arm is in bandages. The bandaged arm shakes slightly as she holds it out for me to shake.

"Violet le Doré. I wondered when I might meet you, now here you are." Her eyes move up and down me, investigating my appearance. "Miss Peregrine, it's lovely to meet you."