ocean eyes (millard nullings) ✓

five , the hollowgast

CHAPTER FIVE
the hollowgast

・゜゜・．

going on walks always seemed to relax me. the route we took bought us by the sea, where the air smelt of fresh salt water. the sound of the waves crashing against the shore also always bought peace to my mind. i knew that the waves would never stop crashing into the sand, and it made me feel safe.

of course, walking with a group of peculiar children, you could only focus on these things for a few minutes before we all become hyper.

it was silent as we walked, only the few murmurs of the little ones could be heard. it was when hugh tugged on fiona's braids, that silence was interrupted. fiona snapped her head to him, and stood harshly on his foot. you could say i was a proud best friend.

"ouch! what was that for?" he exclaimed, bouncing on one foot for a moment.

"for being annoying." fiona remarks, crossing her arms.

hugh sighs, "i'll just annoy max instead then." he looks at me amusingly.

i scoff, "do you want your other foot stepped on?"

hugh shakes his head rapidly, moving foreword to walk with the twins. fiona slows down her pace to walk with bronwyn and horace, whilst millard and i stay where we are. no one notices emma and jake's disappearance, either.

"those two act like an old married couple." i say, a small giggle escaping my lips.

"they do. they're worse than abe and emma were." millard agrees.

we walk in peaceful silence for a while, our hands brushing closely against one another every so often, making me blush a light shade of pink.

after a while, millard speaks up. "c-can i hold your hand?" he asks quietly, stuttering a little, which made me blush harder.

i nod my head, mentally telling myself to calm down. "of course."

we walk the rest of the way, our hands interlocked. it was such a small action, but to me, it was everything.

・゜

we arrive home, and all of us children part ways to do our own thing. millard and i go to the library to read together for a little while, before i have to complete another chore of mine - accompanying miss peregrine to kill the hollowgast.

it wasn't a daily chore that i had to do, its only every now and then when miss peregrine tells me so. today was one of those times. she usually only asked if she felt like she couldn't concentrate enough. she always killed the monster anyway, so i was only a precaution.

i pick a book off of the bookshelf to read before i meet miss peregrine outside. today, i choose romeo and juliet. it is a novel about to lovers from fair verona, and is no doubt one of my favourites.

"haven't you read that like a thousand times already?" millard exaggerates, picking up a book of his own.

"yes, but it's one of my favourites. despite how silly some parts are." i say, getting comfortable on a green arm chair.

millard chuckles, and we begin to read our novels. shakespeare has always been one of my favourite writers. his words are extremely powerful, and the stories are quite unique. in school at the orphanage i grew up in, we were about to read it as a class. miss peregrine took me here before we began. i presumed that was one of the reasons i took an interest in it. i didn't want to be left behind.

fifteen minutes later, i'm already one hundred and one pages in. page one hundred and fifty one, i think, before closing the book and standing up.

i stretch out my body, putting the book back into the bookcase. "i've got to meet miss peregrine now." i tell millard, snapping him out of his reading trance.

i'm halfway through the door when he stops me, "be careful, okay?"

i turn to look at him (well, where his head should be anyway). "when am i not?" i smile slightly, and leave the room. i walk through the house, sending some of the children smiles as i pass them. miss peregrine is already waiting for me by the hedges, her pocket watch in hand.

"right on time, max." she says, snapping the watch shut.

i give her a half hearted grin, and we walk down towards the outline of the hollowgast.

3rd person perspective

emma and jake peer over the top of the hedge, watching as miss peregrine and max make their way down the grassy slope. emma had a plan to show jake he was peculiar like the rest of them, and this was her way.

"ymbrynes usually pick the perfect day to make their loop, but miss peregrine had to make this one in a rush." emma states.

"why?" jake questions, furrowing his eyebrows.

"because the germans were about to drop a bomb on our house." emma says, "the point is, september the third, 1943 wasn't perfect. the thing that killed victor came back."

the two watch for a moment, but only jake see's when the hollow climbs over the hill.

"no, watch out!" he shouts, blue eyes wide.

"be quiet, you'll put her off!" emma whisper-shouts, pulling on jake's sweater.

jake watches as the hollow gets closer to max and miss peregrine. max holds her hands out, preparing to make a forcefield if necessary.

"why is max there?" jake whispers to emma, watching as the two woman stare where they think the hollow is.

"she's there if anything goes wrong and miss peregrine needs her to hold it back for a little while." emma tells him.

jake continues to watch as miss peregrine holds up her cross bow, aiming it for the hollow.

just as it's about to attack her, she shoots it square where it's eyes should be. jake seems to relax a little when it falls onto the ground, exactly where the outline of it is.

"you can see them, can't you?" emma asks, "no one else can. it's invisible jake. that was abe's greatest gift of all. he could see the monsters."

・゜゜・．

word count: 1040
updated on: 31/07/18
last edited: 31/07/18

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a/n: i'm making the chapters shorter, so there are more than ten chapters in the whole book lmao.