Silver Lining

CHAPTER FOUR

Abe's POV

"So you're really going to do it then?"

I sighed. I knew this was coming.

My suitcase lay closed on top of my bed, so stuffed to the brim that I had to ask Bronwyn for help closing it. My coat hung by the door with my freshly polished shoes, and I had lain everything out that I was going to need for the next day.

Not to mention I was just back from town from enrolling when Emma cornered me in my room.

Emma stood with her back to the door, blocking my only exit. My leg twitched as I sat in my chair, looking anywhere but at her.

"You knew I was going to."

"I thought you would have backed out."

I rolled my eyes. "Great to see that everyone here has so much faith in me here. If that's true, then why do you have so much faith that I would have been able to protect you if I stayed?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe considering you can see the things that are trying to kill us!" Emma exclaimed before taking a deep breath, her shoulders slumping.

"You can't be safer than you are when you're with Miss Peregrine."

"I'd still feel a lot safer if you stayed."

My heart flipped in my chest as I stood up in my seat. Taking a few steps, I took Emma's hand and squeezed tightly. Now it was her avoiding my eyes. "I'm still going to write to all of you. I'm not leaving forever without another word, I think Agnes would kill me."

Emma rolled her eyes. "There's a line for that, believe it or not."

"Good to know." I laughed. The room fell quiet as I ran my thumb over the back of her hand. The two of us jumped apart as if we had been electrocuted when there was a knock on the door, our faces equally crimson. "Who is it?"

What a wonderful time for my voice to crack.

"Agnes."

Emma shot me a look that said 'good luck' as she opened the door, squeezing out before Agnes closed the door behind her. The frustration was palpable in the air, emanating off of her in waves, and I gulped at the woman before me.

Good luck indeed.

"Have you got everything?" Her eyes went to my suitcase and laughed at how the end of a scarf peaked out of the side.

"I'm sure I'll manage."

"How's Emma?"

My cheeks coloured at her question and I rubbed at the back of my neck. "She's still not happy but she understands slightly more about why I'm going, I hope so anyway."

Agnes grinned. "Her letters better be twice as long as mine or I'm going to find you and help you write a decent one."

"You're okay with me going now then?"

Agnes hesitated and my stomach plummeted. "I still wish you weren't going but I know I'm not going to be able to stop you. Especially not when you're so up on your high horse about 'protecting the peculiar world'."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Sure..." Agnes trailed off rolling her eyes and I was certain there that I had lost. "Just be careful though. There's tons of them and only one you."

"Way to be encouraging." I scoffed.

"You know what I mean."

Before I knew it I was almost knocked flying as Agnes lunged at me, her arms wrapped right around my middle. She was a foot shorter than me as her head was tucked under my chin, strands of her hair tickling my nose as it appeared she wasn't going to let me go any time soon.

"Just be safe."

I wrapped my arms tightly around her, squeezing a little tighter. "You too."

Agnes' POV

I wiped the tears from my eyes as I left Abe's room, sighing. There was no way that Emma nor I  nor even Miss Peregrine could keep him here unless he wanted to stay, so I knew that he was going to go regardless of how much I pleaded with him. It was easier for both of us if I accepted that now, and we weren't fighting when he left.

Walking into my room, I smiled at the basin sitting on a table in the center, freshly filled. I dragged a chair up and sat on it, high up on my knees. I gazed down into the smooth surface of the water, still as the surface of a mirror as I concentrated.

Ripples flickered across the surface out from the center, disturbing the water so much so that I could not see the bottom of the basin through the little waves. Slowly, I raised my hands above the basin and made a motion with my hands as if I was smoothing out a sheet, the ripples disappearing with the motion as I spread my fingers outwards, an image solidifying in the center of my looking glass.

I was looking through the pane of glass in his window as Enoch sat working at his desk. My eyebrows scrunched together, I coughed to try and get his attention.

Nothing.

I coughed again, louder. I was sure the vein in my forehead was ready to pop with the amount of concentration I was putting into this one exercise.

Enoch looked around himself as if the noise had been fly that was buzzing around his head.

"Over here."

Enoch jumped back from his desk as he stood up, his chair toppling onto the floor behind him. I could hear the sound coming from the room beside me and I chuckled. He walked closer to the window, squinting at me incredulously as I grinned.

"Since when?"

"I've been trying ever since Abe said that he was planning to leave," I explained. "I can still talk to him this way, and it'll be easier than writing letters."

"Can you bring anyone else into the picture with you?"

"I'm not sure yet." I sighed. "I feel like I'm going to pass out from keeping up this image as it is."

"That's so creepy." Enoch scrunched up his nose.

"Well, you're one to talk."

"I make dolls fight, I don't watch people without them realising." He argued and I rolled my eyes.

"At least I know it works now." I reached up to wipe sweat from my forehead and my chest tightened. I wasn't sure just how much longer I was going to be able to hold up the picture.

The strain must have shown on my face as Enoch's own creased in concern. "I'm going to go stick on a pot of tea, go and lie down for a minute. You look terrible."

"Thanks, I love hearing that."

I slumped back onto my bed after the image in the basin disappeared into ripples across the water's surface. Strands of my hair were stuck to the sides of my face with sweat but I was still beaming.

Abe was leaving, but I could still speak to him as if he were here.

Only peculiars can see my image reflected in whatever surface I'm scrying through, but I could never speak to them before. Any time I opened my mouth the noise echoed wordlessly across the water. My attempts had been fruitless.

Before now.

I straightened out my skirt and sat up again when Enoch entered my bedroom carrying a tray of tea. He kicked the door shut behind him and I hurriedly lifted my basin down from the table in the center of the room so that he could set the tray down.

We watched silently as Abe carried his suitcase down the path, sipping our tea as we watched my brother disappear from our world forever.