Untouchable (A Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Story)

Chapter 3 🦔

When I saw the house, I was in awe! It had a gothic style about it that was taken out of the Victorian era. Well, what was left of it, that is. It seemed like plants wanted to take back the house - losing the battle, but not willing to lose the war. In a way, it was beautiful, but hideous at the same time. I could tell it was haunted just by looking at it.

Lance on the other hand wasn't as excited. Fear was etched all over my brother's face, replacing the delight from earlier. "On second thought," he said, "I think we should go back to the hotel. It's getting late, anyway..." I grabbed his suspenders to keep him from running away. "Oh no you don't!" I said to him in a commanding voice. "I'm not going in there alone. Look, I'll hold your hand if you get scared." The jitters seemed to fade from him as Lance grabbed my hand and I led him inside.

The inside of the house was in no better shape than the outside. Some of the walls had giant holes in them while mold was starting to form on others. I was so taken by the ruined building, I failed to notice the mischievous smirk that Lance pulled. "I wanna play hide and seek!" He shouted. Suddenly, he broke away from me and started running up the stairs. He was doing this out of spite, I knew he was, but I still chased after him, as I didn't want him to get lost.

The hallway was long and winding with many doors branching off of it. I guessed that a number of children lived in the home before it was bombed. All the more reason why I felt bad for them. But I had a task to focus on. There were tons of places for Lance to hide in this house and if I came back to the hotel without him, Dad would blow a fuse.

I searched all of the upstairs rooms, which were mostly bedrooms. When I didn't find him there, I searched the downstairs floor, but I refused to go into the basement. Who knows what viruses and bacteria could be growing down there. Then, I heard a tiny voice above me saying, "I win!" I looked up and saw Lance hanging from the rafters, his legs dangling. Seriously, I have no idea how he got up there.

"I'm coming down now," he said.

"No, Lance! Don't!"

Lance jumped off of the beam and fell straight through the floor, creating a hole that led to the basement. "I'm okay!" He called to me from below. Looking through the Lance-sized hole in the floor, I saw my brother in the dark basement, puffed up for what I could tell.

(A/N: a puff up is anytime that the Schaeffer siblings have all of their retractable quills out)

"Are you hurt?" I asked the question in case I needed to go for help.

"I told you, I'm okay!" He shouted.

"Alright, I get it! You don't have to yell at me."

There was noise that sounded like shuffling coming from underneath me. I heard a scream. Lance was in danger! I had to help him.

"Roxy, there's a monster down here!"

Oh geez! Lance was probably lying, but the only way to make sure was to see it for myself, so I ran down he steps. I found Lance at the bottom, cowering in fear. Quills stuck out of his arms legs, and back - his defense mode. "Roxy, make it go away," he whimpered. That's my brother: afraid of his own shadow. I asked him where the "monster" was. He pointed to a particular wall, the contents of which horrified me.

From what I could see, I felt like a bunch of eyes were watching me. The room lit up and I could see that the wall was lined with organs pickling in formaldehyde. Had this been a slaughter room?! More importantly, where had that light come from? All of the lights hadn't worked in twenty-six years. Unless...

As I turned to look, I saw her almost immediately: a little girl with a glowing white aura. I knew who she was: the ghost who haunted the house! Lance saw her too, apparently, because he screamed.