Silver Lining

PROLOGUE

"Tygrysku, it's time for bed." Abe Portman lifted Jake from his seat on the table, carrying the young boy into his bedroom. Their map was still spread out across the kitchen table, a couple of the stickers still dotted on the back of his nephew's hand as the pair planned their voyage. He cast his son a disapproving glance over his shoulder before closing the door tight.

Jake was already wrapped up in bed, having pulled his duvet up to his chin. His black hair stuck up in tufts like the feathers on a duckling, freshly washed, and dried. He smelled faintly of baby shampoo, the spiky tendrils of his hair leaning over his round blue eyes.

"Can you tell me a story, Grandpa?"

Abe sighed, settling down on the edge of his grandson's bed. "What about?"

"The children at the home."

"Ah," Abe nodded with a smile. "Once upon a time, a long time ago-"

"With the pictures."

"The pictures." Abe reached down and retrieved a metal box from under the bed. The hinges creaked as he almost had to peel it open, his aged hands picking over pictures from another lifetime ago. "Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a young woman in a house in Wales with her charges; a group of peculiar children that she had taken under her care.

There was Millard, the invisible boy." Abe cracked a smile as he lifted up the yellowing photograph. Millard had donned a flat cap and his best shirt for the photograph, although he had complained that he had put no more effort than usual.

Millard's 'low effort look' usually involved his birthday suit. Abe thought with a grin.

Jake handled the photograph in his hand as though it was made of glass, holding it up to the light with a look of wonderment in his eyes. He never got tired of seeing the photos of the children that his grandpa had once known, however peculiar they seemed.

"And then there was Hugh. The boy was a living beehive, with hundreds and thousands of bees flying about in his tummy." Abe poked at his grandson's stomach to hear his squeals of laughter, taking out the photograph of Hugh. He had opened his mouth and unleashed a hoard at their photographer. Thankfully he was the last to have his picture taken, as Miss Peregrine had found that it was most suitable to kill the man after, in order to keep their secret.

"And Emma, she could float."

"She was lighter than air," Abe confirmed, taking out the photo of the delicate blonde next. He handled this one with a little more care, straightening out the creased edges before he handed it to Jake.

"What about auntie Agnes?"

Abe grinned, taking out a selection of photos this time. He had loads of photos with his sister, on a small camera that the pair had nicked from the photographer's bag before he had been 'disposed of'.

"Any mirror or lake, that was her trick. She could see from one surface to another, even speak through them when she really got onto the way of it."

Agnes grinned up at him from the photos. Her chestnut coloured hair was loose in curls around her face, the rest tied up behind her head in a mess that he had always called a birds nest. Her blue eyes were the very replica of Jake's, framed by the same long thick lashes. Abe had always teased her about being a couple of inches shorter, although she had always responded with pranks that scared him out of his wits.

Abe passed each photo to Jake who took them in his little hands, holding the photographs up close to his face. The likeness between the two was uncanny, from the eyes to their button noses. Jake also puckered his lips when he was concentrated, the same way Agnes always had before she threw her book at Abe for interrupting her.

"Where did Agnes go?"

Abe sighed. "She's still on the island with all of the other children."

"Why didn't they leave with you?"

Jake was always so full of questions. "It wasn't safe for them. There were monsters."

"What types of monsters?"

Abe stood from the bed, leaning into the light. "Huge, terrifying creatures, with tentacles coming out of their mouths like this." He hisses the last consonant, wiggling his fingers in front of his face so that the shadow behind him replicated the hollowghasts which pillages loops around the world.

He could have sworn that he saw his sister smile at him out of the corner of his eye.

Jake handed the photographs back to his grandpa, keeping one on his bedside table. Abe smiled at the picture, promising himself internally that he would get it framed for him.

The picture was of Agnes just after Victor pushed her into the lake, a year before the loop was made. Her hair was soaked, hanging around her face like vines hanging from trees in a swamp. Just behind her, Abe had captured Enoch pushing Victor into the lake in response, hiding a smile on his usually inexpressive face.

Abe missed his sister dearly and longed to revisit the loop where she and the rest of the children stayed, but having 'retired' a couple of years beforehand, it would be difficult to explain to his family why he was suddenly going on 'business trips' again. 

He also didn't wish for his son and his wife to take the notion into their heads that he was 'too old to travel alone' and decided to head to Cairnholm with him. They would never have understood.

"I think it's time that you get some sleep, Tygrysku." Abe flicked out the bedroom light and turned to walk out the door.

As Jake pulled his covers tighter up at his chin and curled up on his side, Abe winked at Agnes in the reflection of the window. His sister smiled back and waved, looking down at her great-nephew adoringly.

Abe was certain that they would meet someday, even if he had to engineer it himself.