Thin Ice (MPHfPC Fanfic)

Chapter Three:

Miss Peregrine stood aside and admitted us in. We traveled into the parlor, in which the girl I knew as Emma was heating a teapot. I looked between Jake and Emma as they made eye contact, wondering if I could see anything unusual on their faces. It wasn't every day you knew exactly what was going to happen.

"We're what's known, in common parlance, as-" Miss Peregrine began.

"Peculiar," I interrupted, unable to stop myself. "It's a recessive gene carried down through families."

Miss Peregrine shot me a confused look. "How on Earth did you know that, Miss Perine?"

"I can read this book," I said, holding up the book. "It had the future written in story format. Only I can read it. To everyone else, it's blank."

"Hmm," Miss Peregrine said. "I see. Well, since you seem to know everything already, I think you should sit and let me explain everything to Mr. Portman."

I sat in a cushioned chair while Jake sat on the floor. In my haste, I had forgotten to warn him about the mud, so he was encrusted in it. I was clean, other than my shoes. I felt a pang of sympathy and regret that was quickly overcome by excitement as Miss Peregrine explained everything to Jake.

Once she was done explaining and Jake was done interrupting, she turned to me. Her stare was intense, it felt like her piercing green eyes were seeing right into the core of my soul. "And what brings you here, Miss Perine? I must apologize, I thought I had ruled you out as a normal when you moved here a few days ago."

That's because I had never allowed anyone to see the pages of the book. I had only allowed them to see the exterior, a blank, blue-coloured cover with green accents embroidered around the edges. Should anyone have seen it, they would have surely thought I was crazy. Especially my aunt, who I had come to live with after The Center for Parentless Kids had discovered that I, in fact, had a living relative.

"Well," I began. "I moved in with my aunt a few weeks ago because before then I hadn't even known I had an aunt. And I had no other family to go to, I've been in foster care for as long as I could remember." Miss Peregrine nodded. She had probably heard stories like mine, it wouldn't have been uncommon for peculiars to have had no parents.

I continued. "I had found my book in the library where I used to live a few weeks earlier. It was just sitting there, and at first I couldn't see anything in it's pages either, but after I took it to the shelter for more inspection, it showed a story. It was obviously fictional, with witches and spin-off fairy tales. I thought it was odd, but I love to read and I had practically carved the library out, I was so desperate for books. So I kept it.

"I was reading a story about an alien planet when Jake showed up. I talked with him a bit and agreed to meet up with him again later. Then when I looked back down again, I saw a different story instead. I was a bit disappointed at first, because the other story was quite good, but then I started reading."

I paused and looked back and forth from the Ymbryne to Jake. They were both looking at me silently, waiting for me to continue.

"It told of a Ymbryne with two brothers who took care of a boy who had bees in his stomach, a girl who floated, a boy who had prophetic dreams, a boy who could raise the dead, a girl who could make heat, a girl with a backmouth, a girl who could grow plants, and a girl who had the strength of ten men. Then they met Jacob Portman, the boy who could see the monsters."