MPHFPC one-shots

Dead of Night

Movieverse

No one's POV;

Miss Peregrine exited her bedroom quietly. It was one of those nights where she couldn't sleep. Truthfully, she barely slept at all. The last time she'd slept was almost a week ago, yet, once again, she couldn't sleep. Maybe she was too restless. Perhaps it was the bird part of herself that was keeping her awake.

Either way, she made her way down the hallway, then down the stairs, missing the second step on her way down as it always creeked.

When her black tights touched the carpeted floor at the bottom of the stairs, she breathed in relief. It was a only tad warmer than the wooden floorboards at the top of the stairs, but it was an improvement since she'd taken her heels off hours ago and left them in her bedroom.

Miss Peregrine then made her way through the house and into the kitchen. The place she always went when she couldn't sleep. The second she entered, she took a deep breath, already missing the carpeted hallway as her feet met tiled floors.

She walked on her tiptoes as she walked over to the sink and filled up a glass full of cold water. With her drink in hand, she took a seat at the table and set the glass on it.

With nothing else to do, she just sat there and let herself get lost in her thoughts. It was the same routine almost every night.

She thought about what she would cook the next day, whether her wards needed anything such as new clothes or toys, whether Enoch would need some more animal hearts. She usually handled that because of her second nature. She found it easy to hunt and she would go and find some rats or frogs for him. Of course she wouldn't kill them because she might accidentally destroy their hearts, but she would definitely bring them back for her dead-riser ward.

As she thought, she found her mind wandering to a dark place as it usually did. She thought about Victor, of course, and how she could have saved him, how her children must hate her for what she'd allowed to happen under her care. Especially Bronwyn- Victor's sister. Her mind then wandered to darker thoughts, about her time in Miss Avocet's loop. How she was always praised for being the youngest and most successful ymbryne, whilst always finding a way to hide her brother's abuse. Maybe if she'd told someone, he might not have gone down the dark path that he had.

Shaking her mind of those thoughts, Miss Peregrine lifted the glass of water to her lips and took a sip.

"What are you doing?" A voice asked. Miss Peregrine choked on the water for a split second before recovering. "Sorry, are you all right?" The same person asked.

"I'm fine, Millard," Miss Peregrine replied and watched as the chair in front of her pulled out then tucked itself back in. Of course he was nude. "Where are your clothes, Mr Nullings?" Miss Peregrine questioned sternly.

"In my room," he simply said.

"And why aren't you wearing them?"

"It was hot, I couldn't sleep," he said. Miss Peregrine nodded, accepting the answer for now. "Why are you down here in the dark?" Millard asked after a short silence.

It was then Miss Peregrine realised it was indeed dark. She hadn't turned on the light.

"I couldn't sleep either," she admitted.

"Why?" Millard inquired.

"I don't know," Miss Peregrine said quietly with a smile. Of course she wouldn't tell him she hadn't slept in almost a week, and that she did this a lot.

Miss Peregrine stifled a yawn, suddenly feeling quite tired. She wasn't sure what had come over her, but she felt like she could sleep for days.

Millard chuckled, "maybe all you needed was a chat," he guessed. "I'm feeling tired, too. Maybe we should go to bed?" He got up from his chair, walked around the table and took her hand. Miss Peregrine nodded and got up from her own chair.