A peculiar tale

Afternoon Walk

Zoe's POV:

After knocking on the door we are met with a happy Bronwyn. "Jake, Zoe your back!" She exclaims, lifting Jake and spinning him around, then doing the same with me. "Come and play!"

"We need to see Miss Peregrine first." Jake says. "Do you know where she is?" Bronwyn nods and takes us to the kitchen. She then smiles and runs off to be with the others. When we get there we see Miss Peregrine feeding the Ymbryne.

"Jake, Zoe, you're back. How wonderful!" Miss Peregrine exclaims when she sees us.

"How's it doing?" Jake asks. "Zoe said it was an Ymbryne."

"She, Ymbrynes are always female." I say.

"And Zoe was quite correct. This is Miss Avocet." Miss Peregrine says.

"Her loop's in Blackpool, England." Jake says, pulling the letter he took from the attic yesterday out of his pocket.

"That was a private letter, Jake." Miss Peregrine says, putting the pipette down.

"Who is Mr Barron?" Jake asks. Miss Peregrine doesn't answer, but I can see the hurt behind her eyes. "Miss Peregrine, if my grandpa was involved with dangerous people I need to tell the police."

"Police? Are you implying Abe died an unnatural death?" Miss Peregrine says.

"We found him in the woods, with his eyes missing." I say. "I'd say that was pretty unnatural." Miss Peregrine gets up and takes the paper from Jake's hand.

"Unless essential, I don't discuss unpleasant matters." She says. "An Ymbryne's duty is to protect children, Jake." She then walks out the room.

"We're not children." Jake exclaims. "He wanted you to tell us everything!" Miss Peregrine walks out the door, ignoring him. As we walk into the hallway we find Enoch and Olive.

"Oh, how frustrating for you both. Between Miss Peregrine's rules and my housemates' little pact not to scare you off, it's like no one's telling you anything." Enoch says.

"Why don't you, then?" Jake says to him. "It's not like you want us here."

"Enoch, you can't. You promised." Olive says from behind him.

"Olive's right, but I do know one person who can get away with breaking the rules though. Want to meet him?" Enoch says. He then walks up the stairs and we follow.

"Enoch, don't do this. Please!" Olive begs.

"You want to spend time with me, Jake and Zoe, we can all play together. That's what you said." Enoch says, Olive then stands in the way of the door, arms out and blocking the way. "Here we all are. Move, Olive."

"If you're going to be like that then I don't want to be your friend." Olive says, storming down the corridor.

"Enoch, leave Victor alone. It really upsets Bronwyn." Fiona says.

"Stop fussing, Fiona." Enoch says putting his hands on her shoulders. "Besides don't you think Jake and Zoe should meet everybody?"

"He's trying to frighten you away. He was always jealous of Abe and now he's jealous of you." Fiona says, mainly to Jake about grandpa. "Come and play with us instead." Enoch turns to face us.

"I'd quite like to meet Victor." Jake says. Enoch then rubs Fiona's head and looks to me for my answer.

"I need to speak with Miss Peregrine." I say. I then look to Fiona, "I'll come and play after."

With that we go our separate ways, when I get to the garden Miss Peregrine is sitting and looking at the world around her. I notice she hasn't brought out the food for Miss Avocet, I go back into the house and grab some. When I come back out I sit on the seat next to her. She looks to me in shock, I then hold out the food and she smiles gratefully, taking it from me.

"Miss Peregrine?" I say. She looks to me. "Why did you not want me to tell Jake we're peculiar?"

"Because, at the moment he seems to be in a moment of denial, he doesn't believe that he is peculiar, and that is something he needs to work out in his own time." She replies.

"Okay, also may I ask when I can learn to turn into a bird?" I ask her. She smiles at me.

"We usually go for a walk around now, I was thinking I could walk beside you and we could discuss it, and then when we return you could attempt at transforming?" Miss Peregrine replies. I smile at her and nod. We then get ready for the walk.

We stand at the bottom of the stairs as we wait for Jake and Enoch, so that we can all go for a walk. Jake suddenly comes to the top of the stairs, and I can see fear in his eyes.

"Ah, there you are. Is Enoch with you? It's time for our daily walk." Miss Peregrine says. The pair then come down, and we all make our way along the cliffs. I walk beside Jake to begin with, where he tells me what happened with Victor.

~Earlier with Victor, Jake's POV:~

Enoch opens the door, and holds his hand out into the room.

"After you." He says, I walk in and take in the appearance of the room. There is some dressers, but in the middle is a single bed. The sheets are white, and there is a white netting hanging around the bed. In the bed looks to be Victor.

"Hi Victor, I'm Jake. I'm sorry to disturb you-" I start. But I notice that Victor isn't moving.

"Yeah, no. He can't hear you." Enoch says. He then comes back from the dresser and leans beside the bed. He pulls back the netting and brings out a human heart. He moves back the shirt on Victor and places the heart underneath. Using his peculiarity, there is then the sound of a heartbeat in the room. I watch as Victor suddenly springs up from his bed, his head hangs from his neck on his chest. He then looks up and I see that his eyes are missing, just like grandpa's were.

"Hello, Jake. I'm Victor. Do you want to know what killed me?" Victor's voice asks. But his mouth doesn't move in sync with the words. It just opens and closes, as if controlled by a puppet. With that the fear bubbles up and I rush from the room, and come to the top of the stairs where everyone is waiting at the bottom.

~End of moment~

"Wow." I say, "That sounds creepy, sorry I wasn't there with you."

"That's alright, I wouldn't have wanted you to go through that." He replies, bringing me into a side hug. We then walk a little faster, so we can catch up with Emma.

"Emma, who killed Victor?" Jake asks her.

"Was it the people with the white eyes?" I ask.

"I asked you not to ask questions." Emma says, directing it at Jake.

"We saw one the night our grandpa died." Jake says. "A man."

"If it really was one, you have to tell Miss Peregrine." Emma says. "Could you recognise him from a photograph?"

"Do you have one?" He asks.

"Come on. There's somewhere I go to be alone. I have things there." Emma says.

"Go without me, tell me the outcome." I say to Jake. He nods and together the pair walk off. I then catch up with Olive and Bronwyn, and continue the walk. When we get back to the house, Miss Peregrine comes and says that she will teach me to become a bird.