Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Emma was having the time of her life, totally. In fact, who wouldn’t be having a great time in her position; crying in her bed listening to Chapelle Roan. Her summer was going quite well, thank you very much! Y’know, she confessed to her friend, who promptly rejected her, and her parents are forcing her into a stupid job. Yeah, it feels spoiled but she really wished she could just rot. Then, her music stopped, as her phone began to ring. It was her grandmother. They used to be closer, when Emma was younger. She used to tell her all these stories of magical children. A boy who was invisible, a boy who could raise the dead, a girl who was way stronger than normal, a boy who could see these “invisible monsters”. But, her favorite was always a girl who could float. Her name was Olive, if Emma remembered correctly, she was about the same age that Emma was now. She could barely remember the stories. She could however, remember to actually pick up the phone

“Emma! Emma! Where is it!”

“Where is what, Grandma?”

“The powder! The powder, Emma!”

“Grandma, I don’t know where it is. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine! I’ll fight without seeing them!”

“Grandma wha-?”

Then, the line went dead. I didn’t know what to do. Grandma was alone, probably med-less. She’s gonna do something stupid, I just knew it. I felt powerless, then I remembered I wasn’t. So, without thinking, I grabbed my car keys, without telling anyone where I was going. Normally, I would tell someone. However, this was a special occasion. I need to stop her before she does anything stupid. The drive was slow, like every drive before. However, this time, the drive was painfully slow. Every second it took, I felt her life slipping away from me. The cul-de-sac was quiet, almost too quiet. I’ve always hated this place, it felt more like an old folks home than the actual old folks home did. As I ran down the road to her house, I briefly made eye contact with one of her neighbors. His eyes were a pale white. I didn’t know she had a blind neighbor. As I approached the house, my guard went up. Even in the best case scenario, I’m dealing with a possibly psychotic old woman, and at worst, she might be dead. I can barely even conceptualize that, I can barely even say it. But, I don’t have to, because she isn’t. She isn’t, and she won’t be. Her screen door opened with a creak. Her entire house was scarily empty. It was creepy.

“Grandma? You okay?”

She’s not here. That’s not good, that’s definitely not good. Okay okay, where could she possibly be. Maybe hidden? No. That’s not her. She wouldn’t hide, I know she wouldn’t. If she isn’t here, then where could she possibly be? Then, I saw it. The screen door was wide open, with a trail leading outward. Shit. Okay, two options, One, she’s just standing outside. Or two, someone or even something broke in and hurt her in some way. Well, I have to find out either way, so despite my better judgment, I went out the open back door. I immediately saw her. Grandma was on the ground, clearly injured. She was lying there, possibly dead. I ran up to her and dropped to the ground right next to her.

“Grandma? Grandma?! Are you okay?”

“Oh Emma, Emma honey, I’m- I don’t think I’m gonna survive this.”

“What- I- Grandma- I”

My eyes were welling up with tears, My hands felt like they were getting hotter and hotter, for some reason it felt like holding fire. I buried them into the dirt, while sitting next to her, hoping to just stay with her for a little longer. Just a little longer. She reached up to wipe my tears, as I started to sob.

“Emma. Oh Emma-” Then she started to cough, she started to cough pretty violently, I almost screamed in pain, like that would save her. “Emma, Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man's grave. September third, 1940.”

“Grandma what? What does that me-” And then, everything around me went up in flames. Not figuratively. Someone, or something had set the grass we were sitting in on fire. The Smoke clouded my vision, to the point where I couldn’t find my grandmother, even if she was right in front of me. I couldn’t breathe, and in my shortness of breath I passed out cold.

Chapter Text

Hand sanitizer. That’s what this hospital smells like. And that’s the first thing I thought of when I woke up. The second thing I thought of was the fact that I’m not dead! I’m not even burned. That’s definitely weird, because I was pretty sure that I was lying in the middle of the burning grass. Whatever, at least I’m still living. My mothers voice then pulled me from my train of thought.

“Emma! Emma sweetie we were so worried! It’s so miraculous you survived!”

“Hey mom.”
“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry about that whole situation. Well come on, let’s go home together now.”

“Oh, are you sure I can go? Don’t they need to keep me here? For like safety or whatever?”

“No darling! They didn’t find any burns or anything! Alright, c’mon now you have to see Doctor Golan later.”

“Doctor Golan? What??”

“Your new therapist!”

“My new what? Wait, why? I’m fine!”

“No you aren’t darling. Now let's go! Quickly!”

And then, we were off. Mom in her usual (lack) of emotional responses quickly shuffled me off to my new therapist, Dr. Golan. And that’s how the next few months went, I was either at home or at Dr. Golan’s. Dr. Golan’s was incredibly monotonous. He’d tell me “Emma, what happened that day was traumatic, and you may just be suffering from ptsd” “Emma you must try to analyze her last words” “Emma! Emma! Please!” God, it was so annoying. I know that it was traumatizing, and I sure as hell don’t want to listen to her last words over and over again. Her stupid meaningless last words. I mean, “Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man's grave. September third, 1940?” None of that even means anything. I mean the loop? What could any of this even mean? In fact, none of it meant anything. Whatever, I don’t even care about any of this. On the upside of this whole thing, I’m allowed to do the same thing I used to (nothing) but they aren’t as mad anymore. However, everything else sucks and we have to clean out her house today.

“Mom, I don’t want to throw this out.”

“God damnit Emma. You’ve said that about everything in this god forsaken house.”

“Well mom, how’d you feel if I burnt all your paintings once you died, huh?” Her face dropped, and I felt awful. But, now was not the time to feel awful, now was time to (minorly) emotionally manipulate my mother into letting me into grandma’s office, to find whatever I can.

“Fine. You know what,” She kicked the empty box in my direction. “You clean out her room. I don’t care.” Then she left, presumably to go smoke and pretend I don’t exist again; like she usually did. While it stung a wee bit; like it always does, it did mean that I now have full access to her room, and all the documents in it. Her office was always messy, and most of it was indeed, completely useless. (Who keeps all of their receipts?) I was about to give up, until I found something. A letter from one Alma Peregrine, sent from Cairnholm, Wales. I recognized that name, she was definitely something to my grandmother, but I can’t remember what. Teacher, maybe? The letter definitely held the answer I needed.

"Dearest Elise,
We all miss you dearly! The other children have been asking when you’ll come back again. Miss. Elephata has been almost inconsolable, I wish you would write to her again. The school feels quite a bit darker and colder without you. I know you have your life in America, but the children really would love to see you again. They all miss living with you-"

The letter continued for quite a bit longer, but I had read all I needed. If there was any chance that she had lived there for any amount of time, then I had to go to Cairnholm. And Peregrine! That’s a type of falcon, maybe she was the bird my grandma was talking about. Maybe she was the key, or “the school” was the key to unlocking her last words. So I did the only thing I could possibly do in this situation; and begged.

“Oh please mom, please! I’ll be out of your hair for the rest of the summer, and I’ll get closer to grandma! Dr. Golan even thinks it’s a good idea! Please please please, dad can do his photography thing there! Pleaseeee?!”

“Well, your father has always wanted to go there.”

“Please!”

“Oh, alright. Fine Emma, you may go. Consider it your birthday gift!”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Then, we were off. It was a twelve hour flight into an hour long boat trip. I barely noticed it, however, I was too excited to finally figure out this whole story. The boat rocked violently as we got closer to the island. By the time we docked, it felt like the boat was practically about to flip over. The second we got back into our room in “the piss hole” as it’s called. Dad immediately went back to writing his novel about photography. He was so focused on his novel, that he barely noticed me slipping out of the room to look around. The island was pretty small compared to Florida, but there were still no leads anywhere. After about an hour of searching, I basically gave up. The island was so massive that I was pretty sure that all my leads had died a while ago. Then, a peregrine falcon swooped down and grabbed my letter. “What?! Hey! Give that back!!” The falcon took off, with my letter in tow. “No! No! No! Hey! Please give that back?!” I chased it down the road, then down the hill I was on, then into a broken children’s home; I was just about to give up, before the bird dropped the letter and flew away. I was so tired that I could do nothing but pant. Then, I looked up; Oh, OH! This is where Grandma grew up wasn’t it? That’s actually really helpful.

The home looked pretty bombed out. All of it was dead and gray, as well as completely covered in soot, however a couple of things were still (mostly) intact. A couple lamps, a few pillows and a trunk! A fully fixed and almost openable trunk! Unfortunately, it’s completely locked. No matter how hard I tried to budge it, it wouldn’t unlock. I was almost out of ideas, until I remembered, I could just throw it down the stairs! The banisters were old, and they were also pretty weak. So, it didn’t take any strength to chuck it off the loft. One thing I didn’t consider, the wood is weak, and there’s also a basement. So, when the trunk hit the floor, the floorboards snapped in half, and a massive hole to the basement. Oops. The basement was definitely weird, it was filled with jars of pickled organs? Ew, whatever. The trunk was filled with photos. Mainly photos of the kids that my grandma described. Huh, that’s weird, these photos couldn’t have been doctored, not to that degree, there wasn’t the technology for that back then-

“Elise?”

“What?” Then I looked up. That was her, the girl that grandma always described, mousey brown hair, about my height, with green eyes. What is going on? “Olive?” Then the girl turned away, and quickly took off running. I vaulted myself out of the basement and took off after her. “Olive?! Hey wait!”

Chapter Text

I ran after her, brushing the bush out of my face as we ran down the hill. I watched her descend the hill and disappear into a hole in the cliff. I briefly considered turning around now, but I’ve gone too far to just leave it behind. Alright Emma, you can do this. Then, I ran headfirst into the cave.

When I went through the entrance of the cave, I heard a pop, running through that cave felt like taking off in an airplane. Then, I stepped into the light. When I walked out, I was back in the city? I was about to go look around when a hand pulled me into the alley. I was about to scream, when I felt cold steel across my neck

“Scream and I cut you.”
“WH-”

“I said. Scream and I slit your throat”

“Why? What did I-”

“Shut up wight. I’m asking the questions here. Who are you and why do you look like Elise?”

“What the fuck is a wight?!”

“You clearly.” She pulled the knife closer to my neck. “Now answer my question. Why do you look like her?”

“Cause she’s my grandmother?”

“Likely story.” She drew the knife closer to my neck again. I was prepared to die right there until-.

“Olive! Stop!” A voice came from nothing. An empty spot in the air seemed to talk to both of us. I must’ve looked incredibly confused, because the voice seemingly clarified. “Oh! Hello I’m Millard Nullings, and as you can tell I’m invisible. The girl who’s tied your hands up and tried to slit your throat is Olive Elephanta, as you can see she’s a bit paranoid.”

“Wow, great work Millard. The spy knows our names now.”

“Birds sake Olive. Just bring her to the bird. She’ll know what to do.”

“Fine. Prisoner.” She turned back to me at this. “March” She poked me in the back with her knife.

“Hey uh, I know I’m a prisoner and all, but who or what is the bird?” The invisible boy (Millard) laughed in response.

“Oh! That’s just a nickname we have for our headmistress. Don’t tell her though, she doesn’t like it very much.”

Oh. So that’s what she meant “Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man's grave. September third, 1940.” Did she want me here? Wherever here is. Well, maybe these people can help me with my quest to understand her.
“Hey, does the date September third, 1940 mean anything to you?”

“Oh! That’s today!”

“What? I went back in time?”

“Well not quite but- Ah, the bird will tell you.” The invisible boy turned away (I think). Then, I saw the house that was on the top of the hill. It was covered in the bush, but it was definitely there.

“Is that the house?”

“Yup!”

“Shut up Millard!” The girl who was “escorting” me finally spoke up again. “Don’t tell her more than necessary.”

“Olive, bird’s sake. It’s clearly fine, if she was a wight she would’ve killed us by now.”

We had reached the house at this point. Millard opened the door first, then Olive semi-threatened me into the house after him. Then, Millard semi-yelled into the house. “Headmistress! We’re home! And we’ve got a guest with us!”

Then a woman descended the stairs. She had gray hair, and a feather tucked on her ear. She made eye contact with me for a second, before turning to Olive. “Miss Elephanta let our guest go at once!”

“But she could be a wight!”

“She clearly isn’t. Now let her go, this is no way to treat guests.” And with that, Olive cut my bonds and let me go. “Miss Elephanta go wash up for dinner, I have things to discuss with Miss Bloom, alone” I watched Olive leave the room and then Miss Peregrine turned to me. “Hello Miss Bloom.”

“How’d you know that I wasn’t a wight or whatever.”

“Well, I’ve seen you on this island already.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember the Falcon earlier?”
“What??”

“That was me. I am what they call an Ymbryne.”

“An ym- what?”

“An Ymbryne. We Ymbrynes can transform into birds, we are also the mothers of loops. But, enough about me, what about you Miss Bloom. Why are you here? And where’s Elise?”

“Oh. She’s dead, she died a couple months ago. I’m sorry.”

“Oh Miss Bloom, I’m so-” She was interrupted by a loud sob. Olive had been outside listening in, she seemed pretty distraught over it. I felt really bad for her, this must’ve been a lot for her to go through. “Miss Elephanta! Please do not eavesdrop.” At that, Olive ran away, I almost ran after her, but turned to Miss Peregrine instead. “You must forgive her Miss Bloom, she and your grandmother were very close.”

“Oh. I just feel really bad for her.”

“She’ll be alright.” The conversation went dead for a second, before she clapped her hands together and turned to me. “Alright Ms.Bloom, I presume you’re staying for dinner?”

“Oh. I guess I am.”

“Well, why don’t you go meet the rest of the children.”

“Alright.”

I walked into the dining room. Sitting at the table I saw an assortment of children. There was a blonde boy in a full suit, a boy in aviator glasses who was holding hands with a messy haired girl, with flowers in her hair and around her. There were a couple more kids as well. A little toddler with blonde curls, A very strong looking dark haired girl, A blonde boy with dark circles under his eyes, and a boy with dark curly hair and blue eyes. As well as Millard and Olive. Olive seemed pretty distraught, but hadn’t said much to anyone.

“Hey guys? I’m Emma, I’m Elise’s granddaughter.”

“Oh hello Emma!” The boy in the suit came up and shook my hand. “I’m Horace!”
“Hello Horace!”

“Why don’t I introduce you to the rest of Miss Peregrine’s wards. The two holding hands over there,” He pointed towards the boy in the aviator glasses and the girl with flowers in her hair. “That’s Hugh and Fiona, they’ve been dating for nearly 170 years.” At this, both of their faces flushed. I smiled at them and waved. They both waved back. Then he pointed to the toddler, “That’s Claire, she’s the youngest person in the loop.” She gave me a small wave and I waved back. She giggled pretty quietly. The girl next to her was introduced as Bronwyn, she waved at me and I waved back. Finally he introduced the last two boys. “The blonde one is Enoch, and the dark haired one is Jacob. They are also unfortunately my only friends.”

“Unfortunately? Horace, I'm wounded.” Jacob quipped back at him. His voice was mostly British, like most of the other kids, but his accent had more of a Polish twinge than any other kids.

“I’m glad. The hurt was intentional.” Horace stuck his tongue out at Jacob. Jacob laughed in response.

“Real mature-”

“Mr Portman! Mr Somnusson! No arguing at the dinner table.”

They both replied pretty synchronously, apologizing to Miss Peregrine. After that was over, we started dinner. Over dinner I learned plenty of interesting facts. Claire was a Backmouth, which is apparently a kind of peculiar with a mouth on the back of her head. She eats with her back mouth, and doesn’t like doing it with others present. Jacob can’t walk without a crutch. He was nailed in the leg by some shrapnel, when trying to get to this home in 1940, he was also originally from Poland, but moved to Britain to flee the war. He was also wearing a bomber jacket that he got from an American soldier who saved him. Enoch is the oldest person in the loop, being about 118. He had apparently lived in another loop before this one. Right as we finished dinner, Miss Peregrine stood up again.

“Right then! Children, it's loop reset time!” Jacob pushed his chair out, and grabbed his crutch, then he turned to Miss Peregrine.

“Headmistress, can we watch the reset? Please?”

“I don’t know…”

“Please! Miss Bloom has to see it, please!”
“Oh alright fine, come come children, let’s go.”

I turned towards Jacob and whispered to him. “What’s going on?” Jacob had gotten up at this point. He whispered back, as he walked towards the door.

“Oh, just wait!” Then he turned around and walked towards Enoch, then they both walked away.

Chapter Text

The rest of the peculiars walked outside, presumably to go watch whatever the hell “the reset” is. I considered running away, just bolting as fast as I could, and trying my luck breaking the barrier to get out. But, on the other hand, this seems pretty cool, and I’ve not got much to lose right now, so (despite my better judgment) I went outside. The kids had arranged themselves into a little semicircle, all intently watching the house, Miss Peregrine stood at the head of the semicircle, a pocket watch in hand, standing next to a little gramophone on a table. The kids had all formed little groups, Olive and Bronwyn were standing together, Olive made eye contact with me for a second, before immediately turning her head away, pretending that she didn’t see me. Enoch, Jacob, and Horace all sat in a little trio, Jacob noticeably putting more weight than usual on his cane. Millard, Hugh and Fiona stood together, Hugh and Fiona holding hands while Millard was talking their ears off about something or other. The last Peculiar; Claire ran up to me.

“Miss Bloom! Will you hold my hand?” She smiled at me sweetly, sticking out her little hand, signaling for me to grab it. I clasped our hands together, and she squeezed back a bit tighter than I expected. She giggled and yanked me as hard as she could and pulled me to her favorite spot on the hill. I stumbled along right behind her, trying to regain my center of balance, Claire’s so strong it’s hard to even believe. She stopped us on the side of the hill. It really was quite a nice spot to view the house. I turned my head to Miss Peregrine, who was intently watching her stopwatch, with one hand on the needle; then, I looked up. A bomb was descending on the house; this must be how they died! My brain immediately goes into bullet time, thinking through millions of options. Should I cover my head? Would that even work? Why are none of them reacting? What’s going on? Are they ghosts? Am I a ghost? Is this purgatory? What’s going on? Before I could even think of anything, the bomb had almost touched a topiary of the first man, it stopped right at his fingertips; almost like god in The Creation of Adam, at least from what I remember from Ap art. Then, the bomb went backwards, floating up through the sky as time reversed. I clearly looked confused because Ms.Peregrine turned to me.

“The loop darling, this is how it resets. Did none of the children tell you?” All the children shook their heads awkwardly, stammering out explanations. She snapped her watch shut “Well, that was quite rude. I have taught you all to treat our guests better.” They all quietly apologized and she turned around. “Well then! Let's get you all to bed then.”

“Aw, come on, please headmistress! Just a little bit-”

“No. You know the rules Jacob.”

“But-”

“No.”

“Proszę?”

“No.”

“Okay, fine.” He and Enoch began to head back, with Horace in tow as well. Ms.Peregrine sighed as they walked away.

“That boy! Honestly it’s like rebelion is in his veins! Well,” She turned to the rest of us “I hope the rest of you will be going down with far less of a fight, or I don’t think I can treat you all with the same kindness.”

“Yes Miss.Peregrine!” They chorussed back, they all went back towards the house while I awkwardly stood on the hill watching them, wondering if I should go with them, or go home. Then, Claire turned around and yelled to me.

“Miss Emma, didn’t you hear Miss.Peregrine? We have to go to bed! Why aren’t you leaving?” I stood still for a second. Should I go? I know dad is waiting, but I doubt he’ll notice at all. But, I shouldn’t worry him. But, do I really care?

“Oh yes!” Miss.Peregrine clapped her hands together. “Where will you be staying Ms.Bloom? Do you need a room?”

“No. I have a… room waiting for me.” Is it really a room? Who cares. “I have to go back to my father, I’m sure he’s waiting for me.” Technically not true. I’m not actually sure if he’s waiting for me. I’m not even sure that he noticed that I left, but they don’t need to understand what’s going on with him. “I don’t actually know how to get home from here though… Could someone help?”

“Of course! Ms.Elephanta, will you take her to the loop exit? That would be quite helpful!” Ms.Perrigrine turned to Olive, who I just realized was staring at me all night. Olive sighed a bit, as we made eye contact, she snapped back to the current reality.

“Oh! Of course Miss.Peregrine. Come, Ms.Bloom. Follow me!” I was halfway sure that she was going to kill me on the way home, but I followed her anyway. I really do want to go home, and this is my best shot.

We made off down the path that I was (pretty sure) I walked up earlier when I was being held captive. We walked in silence for almost half the path before she started talking to me. “Uh- look, I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry for earlier. I- I didn’t- well- you- you just look a lot like her, and you could never be too careful. But anyway, I’m still quite sorry for all that transpired earlier.”

“It’s alright.” We kept walking through the awkward silence, as we went further down the path. After a while, we had reached the end of the path.

“Well- Here’s the loop exit. You’ll exit wherever you entered..”

“Oh! Thank you for leading me here.”

“No problem.” She turned around to leave before turning back for a quick second “Come back tomorrow” Then she gave me a quick hug, and ran off. I exited the time loop, it felt like a wind tunnel, I barely noticed that last time. I sat in quiet silence in the old house, the floorboards creaking, mostly on their own.

“What just happened?”