„We're doomed."

Chapter 14

The five walked along a forest glade. It was a good place to take a break, since it was already getting dark.
The trees here had leaves, not like the trees they had seen before. So at least they could hide underneath something.
Sharon had the idea to make a small campfire, so he searched around for loose branches.
When he came back with a bunch of branches in his arms, everyone sat down in a circle. Sharon placed them on the ground and asked Emma to make a fire.
Miss Peregrine was calming down Horace, who was still shaking slightly and Emma was talking to Hugh.
„Well, at least some of us are reunited now." said Emma, while the others warmed up their hands above the fire.
Hugh nodded and pointed at the tall man. „And I'm glad I found him in the last minute. Otherwise, I probably would have been taken by wights."
„You don't really want to know what it's like being there...." said Horace and the others could see him shiver. „It's horrible."
Miss Peregrine nodded in agreement. „We have to stop him."
Everyone hummed in response, but then turned silent for almost thirty seconds.
„You know, I liked Caul better when he had the size of a dwarf." said Sharon and Emma snorted.
They kept talking until Miss Peregrine said that it was getting late and that they would have a long day ahead. All of them were trying to sleep on the hard ground, and eventually they did. Sharon was the one, who stayed awake to watch out for any dangers.

//

Alma was dreaming. She has been dreaming about her past a lot lately. But somehow she knew, that this one was a nice dream.

„Ready or not, here I come!" Jack yelled across the hallway, after counting to twenty. The three siblings were playing hide and seek, while their parents weren't at home.
Alma was hiding inside the bathtub, while Myron hid inside his closet. Both couldn't stop giggling, but still tried to stay quiet.
Jack silently walked along the corridor, heading to the bathroom.
He knew that Alma was hiding there quite often, but Jack couldn't really understand why she always chose it as a hiding place. It was easy to find, and she used it too often.
But he played along and pretended as if it was really hard to find her.
„Mmh, where could she be....maybe she's in the bathroom..." he said, slowly walking to the bathroom door and knocked on it.
Alma tried to hold back her laughter, but suddenly a quiet giggle escaped from her.
„I wonder what that was..." said Jack as he opened the door slightly. Then he walked over to the bathtub and bend down to her, grinning.
„I found you!"

//

Alma felt herself being lifted up by something, or rather someone.
She had the feeling that the air was getting colder than it already was.
Alma heard someone chuckle deeply and that caused her to wake up.
She opened her eyes and couldn't believe what she saw. It was her brother, holding her in his claws.
Caul put one of his fingers in front of his lips and whispered: „If you scream, I'll kill you."
Then she looked back at Sharon, who was still wandering around, looking out for anyone. Alma began to wonder how Caul was able to be so quiet, even though he was over ten times bigger than all of them together.
And then she screamed.