A peculiar tale

Back To The House

Zoe's POV:

We're eating breakfast in the pub, both Jake and I trying to think of a way to get dad to let us go off. He's concentrating on the news when I suddenly think of an idea. I grab my phone and text it to Jake, he looks at his phone and nods

"Er, do you mind if we go hang out with those other kids today? They asked." Jake says.

"Yeah? That's awesome." Dad replies, hoping it to be true. He then goes back to watching the news, and I smirk internally.

~*~

We get to the house and decide to go in and take a look around. We get in through a window and it enters into a sitting room, we go through some doors into a living room. It's all covered in dust and debris. It all seems broken and beyond repair. Jake finds a picture on the floor, and it's of the children and the headmistress.

We enter the hall, and Jake decides to go up the stairs, I follow him up. We enter a room that's filled with jars, of what seems to be human/animal hearts. I look closer at the jars and the shelves, while Jake leaves the room. I hear a gasp and then a voice then running, I ignore it and continue looking through the jars.

"Hello?" a voice says. I look up to see a teenage girl, she's wearing a pink flowery dress and has shoulder-length, curly red hair. I gasp, dropping the jar in my hand.

"Olive?" I ask, recognising her from Grandpa's photos. She nods. I smile to her and then go to clean up the glass on the floor.

"Don't worry about that." She says, putting her gloved hand upon mine. "Come with me."

"Where's Jake?" I ask, walking towards the door.

"He's being brought by Bronwyn." she replies. I chuckle.

"Knock himself out?" I ask. She nods and laughs.

We walk towards a cave and I walk a little behind Bronwyn, who is carrying Jake on her shoulders. As we get to the entrance of the cave Bronwyn grunts and throws Jake to the ground. He slowly comes around and stands, pointing at the group.

"You're Emma. And the Twins. And Bronwyn. And Olive. And he's Millard." Jake says, pointing them out. "No, you're dead. All of you, you're all dead. I mean he's invisible, but he's still dead."

"None of us are dead." Millard replies.

"Oh, my God. Am I dead?" Jake asks.

"No." Emma replies. "You called me Abe, back at the house. Why?"

"You looked like him. Just for a moment, before you started screaming, running away and concussing yourself." Emma replies. I put a hand on his shoulder, he jumps and goes to swing at me, but I duck.

"And this, my older brother, is why no one thinks I'm the younger one." I say.

"Wait. What's happening?" Jake asks, ignoring my comment.

"We're waiting until the coast is clear, before we go into the loop." Emma says.

"You never know who might be watching." Olive adds, coming up to us and putting a hand on our backs- pushing us gently towards the cave entrance.

"Wait. Before we go into what?" Jake asks, still being pushed by Olive.

"Please, Jake. Miss Peregrine's waiting. She saw you both on the ferry." Emma says. "She's sent us to get you."

And with that we enter the entrance of the cave. As we get into the cave Jake and I stop in the middle, I begin to hear quiet whispering and ticking. I stand in shock, and then the next thing I know Jake had run out of the cave. I turn to the others. "So much for being the protective older sibling. 'Oh, Zoe. I'll just run away and leave you in a dark cave.'" I mock, the others laugh at me and together we walk to the house.

Emma, Olive and Millard run ahead to get a horse and cart to get Jake, from I assume the pub. I look up at the house in awe. What is a place destroyed and in ruins in my world,is now a beautiful house standing tall and destroyed. I stand staring, until I feel a hand on my shoulder, again I retaliate and punch them in the face. I turn to see Jake crouched on the floor groaning again. I look up to see Emma, Olive and Millard, all chuckling- well I assume Millard is.

"Jake, I'm sorry." I say, helping him up. I grab a tissue and hand it to him.

"Don't worry about it." He says, I notice that his nose isn't bleeding as much as yesterday. "Maybe you bled me dry after yesterday." He says pulling away the tissue and seeing the bleeding stopped.

"What happened yesterday?" Millard asks.

"The same thing." I say. They look to me, and I raise my hands in surrender. "What? I tell him not to make me jump and he does anyway."

Together we then walk towards the house, the door opens as we approach it. There stands Alma Peregrine.