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

Chapter 24 🦔

The two of us and Katie ran out of the loop entrance, maneuvered our way through the bog, and rushed our way up the road to the hotel, both of us taking the stairs two steps at a time. Our legs were moving as fast as Dimitri's during a track meet. Why wouldn't we be moving this fast? We had to get to Dad before it's too late. As we reached the door, my mind was all over the place. What if we've already run out of time? Thankfully, I was quickly proven wrong.

When we opened the door, we found Dad packing up the last of his things. A blue suitcase was laid out on the bed, a crocodile with its mouth opened wide, ready to swallow its food (the clothes). Meanwhile, Lance's suitcase was wide open on his bed with clothes spread around it: a swamp of dirty laundry. The sun shining through the cracks in the window was a beacon of hope for us. However, the fact that my father's eyes seemed darker than usual made me think that there was a storm brewing. "Kids," he said with a low voice, "Why aren't you packing to leave?"

"Mister Schaeffer," said Katie, "we need to talk."

"Who said that?" He gazed around the room, trying desperately to find the person whom the voice belonged to.

"Right here." His eyes fell on Katie, who had jumped on top of his suitcase. Her emerald green eyes were daggers that tore their way into his very heart and soul. "That's right! I was the one talking."

He let out a sigh, "I guess you are just like them, Katie: Peculiar."

What? Did he just say what I thought he said?

"That's right, kids. I know that you two are peculiar."

My brother's eyes grew to the size of saucers. "YOU KNEW?! Why didn't you tell us before?!"

Dad's eyebrows drew closer together, the crease between them becoming visible. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to give you a normal life. Well, as much of a normal life as peculiar children can have."

My eyes went wide. My arms started to shake as I moved my trembling hands through my quills. "How do you know this?" I asked him.

"I used to be an assistant doctor during World War II, tending to the wounds of allied soldiers when the head doctor was busy. It was during this time period that I might a young man named Abraham Portman. I learned everything about the peculiar world from him, though I refused to believe it at first. When you're as devoted to science as I am, would you believe something that sounds like a child's fairytale?"

My thoughts scrambled through my head. "I didn't believe it either," I said.

"Exactly. I refused to believe it all because it sounded completely ridiculous. One night, though, I was picked up by a mysterious force, as if an invisible creature had picked me up and was about to devour me."

"Hollows," I mumbled under my breath.

"That's right, Roxanne," he said, grabbing my shoulders. "I would have been eaten alive if it wasn't for Mister Portman. He saved my life. Me, a man descended from one of the countries he was fighting. Often, he asked me why I was fighting on the side of the Allied Powers, so explained to him why my parents and I left Germany."

"Grandpa didn't trust Hitler," I stated in a monotone.

"And your grandmother is Jewish," he finished for me. "My father was a man that was ahead of his time when it came to ideas. That is the main reason why we had chosen to immigrate to America."

Of course, I already knew this, but it really shocked Lance. We've never really discussed this with him before. "How come you never told Mom about this?!" he screamed. "How come you never told her that you knew that we're peculiar?!"

"She wouldn't understand. She would probably think that I had gone nuts."

I shook my head at his antics. "That kind of makes sense. Listen, me and Lance are going to go pack our things."

He ran his hands through his hair, tracing the prominent silver streaks carefully with his fingers. Pushing his glasses into place, he gazed at the both of us with sad eyes. "You two don't need to pack up, because you're not leaving."

"What?!" Katie shouted at him.

A single tear rolled down his cheek. "You two are going to stay here with Miss Peregrine and her children."

"What?!" Lance and I shouted simultaneously.

"You belong with people like you. I'm sorry, kids."

Katie's face contorted into a large cat-frown (if a cat can even pull that kind of expression), glaring at my dad before scratching his face. "That is a terrible idea, Mr. Schaeffer. I can see so many flaws with this plan."

"Like what?"

"If you go home without the kids, people will think that they died, or worse, that you killed them. Your reputation as a doctor will be ruined and you'll stop getting patients. Plus, what would your wife think of you? She'd think you'd finally lost your sanity. She'd probably report you for the supposed deaths of your children. That's not including people thinking you chopped up their bodies..."

"Alright, Katie. That's enough." Dad crossed over to the other side of the room, gazing out the window at the ocean. He looked like he was pondering a deep, personal question that has been bugging him all of his life. "Alright, kids," he said looking at us. "You don't have to stay and I'm not going to force you to leave. Oh, and Roxanne, this came for you in the mail."

He handed me a letter and I sprinted into my room, taking a letter opener and retrieving the contents. However, something was very odd about this letter. Most of the handwriting was illegible except for a few words, which included the name at the bottom of the paper: Dimitri. Dimitri had written this letter? I barely recognized his handwriting! That's when I noticed something else that was odd.

The few words on the letter that I could make out were "trouble" and a phrase: "Can't control it". What could this mean? Maybe I should show this letter to Miss Peregrine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Hello, my dreamers. This book is almost done. Only two more parts that I need to finish! Yay! Why did Dimitri send an illegible letter? And I'm not talking "letters that were written in a hurry", I'm talking scribbles across the page. What could this mean? Will Miss P have the answer? Find out next time.