Discovering the Future

Chapter 2- Chapter 1

Chapter 2 of Reading the books. I wonder how the Peculiars will react to Abe's death...

Anyway, thank you to ILoveJackSparrow for correcting my spelling of Hollowgast and Hollows.

Disclaimer: Have you read the books? If you have, then you most likely noticed that the Author on the front is called "Ransom Riggs" not "Anahita-Acada", so I probably don't own it.

-----------------------START OF CHAPTER-----------------------

I spent the last afternoon of Before constructing a 1/10,000-scale replica of the Empire State Building from boxes of adult diapers.

"...Why?" Millard and Horace questioned, raising eyebrows.

It was a thing of beauty, really,

Enoch raised an eyebrow. "Was it now?"

fanning five feet at its base and towering above the cosmetics aisle, with jumbos for the foundation, lites for the observation deck, and meticulously stacked trail sizes for its iconic spire. It was almost perfect, minus one crucial detail.

"You used Neverleak," Shelley said,

"What's Neverleak?" Olive asked.

eyeing my craftsmanship with a skeptical frown. "The sale's on Stay-Tite."

"What's Stay-Tite?" Olive questioned, annoyed no one was answering her.

Shelley was the store manager, and her slumped shoulders,

"What horrible posture," Horace scoffed.

and dour expression were as much a part of her uniform as the blue polo shirts we all had to wear.

"I thought you said Neverleak," I said, because she had.

"Stay-Tite," she insisted,

"Why does it matter?" Enoch burst out, asking what everyone else was thinking.

shaking her head regretfully, as if my as if my tower was cripple racehorse and she the bearer of the pearl-handled pistol. There was a brief but awkward silence in which she continued to shake her head and shift her eyes from me to the tower and back to me again. I stared blankly at her, as if completely failing to grasp what she was passive aggressively implying.

"Ohhh, I see what he's doing," Millard said, grining.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Of course you do."

"Ohhhhhh," I said finally. "You mean you want me to do it over?"

"It's just that you used Neverleak," she repeated.

Victor rolled his eyes. "Stop repeating meaningless things."

"No problem. I'll get started right away." With the toe of my regulation black sneaker I nudged a single box from the tower's foundation.

"Splendid idea," Horace said, rolling his eyes.

In an instant the whole magnificent structure was cascading down around us, sending a tidal wave of diapers crashing across the floor, boxes caroming off the legs of startled customers, skidding as far as the automatic door, which slid open, letting in a rush of August heat.

All the kids slowly looked between each other, before bursting into laughter, every single one of them imaging this in their head.

Shelley's face turned the colour of ripe pomegranate.