A peculiar tale

Councilling

Zoe's POV:

"But there was nothing there." I say to Dr Nancy Golan. Dr Golan is my psychiatrist, you see after Grandpa's death I haven't been the same, I haven't been talking as much and I have been depressed. I still want to go to the island that Grandpa mentioned, I have seen it as a last wish, which I am going to fulfil, whether I have to disobey my parents to do so. So I now have sessions with Dr Golan every week, Jake has been made to do the same. Our parents say 'they are worried about our well-being'.

"May I say, Zoe..." Dr Golan says. "Considering this this was only a month ago, I think you are doing exceptionally well."

"Apart from being crazy?" I ask.

"Having nightmares, anxiety and depression doesn't make you crazy." She confirms.

"What about seeing things which aren't there?" I ask.

"Actually, in traumatic situations it's not at all uncommon." She says. "Your subconscious mind drew an image from a move or..." I cut her off.

"It was a story." I say. "My Grandpa told myself and Jake stories when we were kids about monsters he thought in the war."

"So there you go. He was brutally attacked and in your head, the man who did it was inhuman, a monster." She says.

"It wasn't a man, though." I say. "The cops said that dogs scratched up the screen door and he chased them off into the woods. And the coroner said that he had a heart attack. And the cops said that dogs go for the soft parts. They DNA tested the fork and it had animal DNA. So, that's it, case closed."

"He sounds like an extraordinary gentleman." She says. "Were you very close?"

~~Flashback~~

"Puerto Rico." Grandpa says to a 6 year old Jake and 5 year old me. "There." He points to the map. "There's a lake where the water glows in the dark and a secret tunnel. That's where I hid from the monsters." Young Jake sticks a red sticker onto the stop on the map.

My Voice-over- "He used to babysit us a lot. When I was with him, I felt special."

The door, to the house, then opens, and in walks mum and dad.

"Abe. It's, like, 11:00. What are they doing up?" Mum says to grandpa. Mum then kisses both myself and Jake on the head.

"We're gonna be explorers." Young me says. "Grandpa's helping us plan our first voyage."

"Everything's already been discovered, buddies." Dad says, while turning on the TV to the bird channel. Grandpa then walks around the table to us, he puts an arm around each of us.

"Pay no attention to your father. He knows bubkes. Come Trgrysku, Păsărică. Off to bed." He says, carrying us both to bed. He puts both Jake and I into our beds, in our shared room.

"Can you tell us a story?" Jake asks.

"The usual?" Grandpa asks, tucking me in. Jake nods.

"Okay. Once upon a time, there was a little boy..." Grandpa begins.

"With the pictures." I say.

"Pictures." Grandpa says, grabbing them from underneath Jake's bed. He opens the box and begins his tale again. "Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Abe."

"That was you." Jake says.

"That was me. And he lives in a lovely children's home on a little island near Wales where the sun shone every day. The headmistress, Miss Peregrine, was very clever." Grandpa says, while holding up a picture of Miss Peregrine. "And she smoked a pipe."