The next night you awoke to a chorus of screaming. You rushed out of your room in the nightgown you stole from Alma. You found she too, was out in the hall, running towards the stairs. "Alma! What's going on?" You gave her a panicked look, running over to her. She paused for a moment but continued rushing downstairs.
"Unsure, but it's four in the morning, they shouldn't be awake." The two of you ran into the kitchen where the noise stopped as soon as you entered the room. "What's happening here?" Every kid in the house had been in the kitchen, even Enoch, but you doubted he was also screaming.
"Sorry, Miss Peregrine. We wanted to make you a cake cause of your birthday and all. But then Claire saw a spider on the wall and well, we overreacted..." Hugh spoke, staring at his shoes.
You looked over at the other woman. "It's your birthday?!" She sighed and nodded. "We'll why didn't you tell-" Another scream cut you off.
"WHERE'D THE SPIDER GO?!" This was Millard. But it caused everyone to scream, with the exception of Alma, Enoch, and Emma. Oh but you were yelling. You definitely yelled.
"QUIET!" Alma yelled over all of you. Oh my birds she is terrifying. "Firstly, do not wake me unless one of you is dying. Secondly the person dying better not be dead by the time I get there because not only will you have killed someone, but you'll have woken me for no good reason. Am I understood?" She was met with silence and a lot of nods. "Look, there's the spider, I'll squish it." She pointed to another wall and started walking over.
"No, don't kill it!" Claire yelled. Alma just sighed and picked it up in her hands, which made a couple kids scream again.
"Millard, Hugh, shush." Miss Peregrine reminded them before walking outside and letting the spider out. "Better?" Again, silence and nods. "Now get off back to bed, you can sleep for an hour and forty eight minutes. I don't need a cake." She said the last part when Fiona tried to protest.
You watched as the kids all went upstairs then grabbed Alma by the shoulders and shook her as you spoke. "It's your birthday, and you didn't tell me?!"
"Yes, because it's unimportant. This day is like any other." You just narrowed your eyes at the woman.
"No.." Was all you could say before walking off.
"What in the world?" Was all the woman said to herself before going to clean up the mess the children had made in the kitchen. She'd finish their baking for them though. They probably just wanted cake after all.
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"Alma!" You ran up to her in the garden. "Hey, hey!" She gave you a questioning look. "Come with me!" You grabbed her and and started running, dragging her behind you. Though she soon managed to keep up with your pace and ran quite well in her usual heels. You stopped in front of the carriage at the edge of the property. "Get on!" Emma was sat at the front, prepared to drive you out.
"Where are we going?" She was mildly concerned but got on anyway.
"Unimportant! Emma go, quick!"
The ride into town was rather fast. Emma was instructed to wait there while you and Alma left the loop for a bit. The girl was more than happy to be excused from chores for a while. Miss Peregrine continued asking you want was happening until she gave up and just let it happen after leaving the loop. The walk back to town went well, until you passed a house with a few very drunk men on the porch. One whistled and pointed at Alma. You glared at the man who was about to say something else, well until his friend punched him in the shoulder and yelled. "WE DON'T WHISTLE AT GIRLS, MICHAL!" His friend then turned to the two of you. "I'm so sorry, he's rude when drunk."
"It's alright." Alma gave a small smile and wave before walking off. You'd shoved your fists into the front pocket of the pants you'd stolen from Alma, looking at the ground and grumbling about something. She raised an eyebrow and linked her arm with yours. "Now. Where are we heading, darling?" She gave you a small smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"Priest Hole, of course. If I'm staying with you I gotta get my things don't I?" You shrugged, yet still smiled back at her. The rest of the walk was quiet. Upon reaching the building you'd been staying at you opened the door and yelled "KEV, I'VE RETURNED AT LONG LAST!" You laughed as the poor man ran from the back to see if you were really there. Martin, who sat at the bar turned to you with a grin.
"Y/n!" Kev near yelled as he sped walked over to you. "Are you alright? You've been gone two days! What's happened?"
"Now, Kev, I think Y/n's more than alright." Martin assured the man. "Look, she picked up a lovely lady." Your eyes widened as you realized you were still arm in arm with Alma and how that could be perceived.
"I- No- Martin!" You tried to cover up the obvious blush on your face by staring at the ground, eventually just unlinking your arms and using your hands to hide your face. You were so caught up in hiding that you hadn't noticed the small pink on Alma's cheeks, and her small smile as she watched you.
Eventually after taking a few deep breaths you looked back up at the two men. "No, I've come to gather my things, sorry to say it boys but I'm leaving. Going to stay with this woman and her children." You thought maybe mentioning the kids would make them back off but it did anything but.
"So you've been with her all this time? What, you gonna help her raise those kids?" Martin laughed at you as red crawled back up your neck. You just sighed and grabbed Alma's hand, making her follow you back to your room.
Once there you quickly started packing all your belongings into two suitcases as Alma looked around. She went over to the dresser where you'd laid out the feathers and pictures of the peregrine falcon you'd seen. "Y/n." You looked up at the woman and walked over when she didn't look at you. She pointed to one of the pictures of the bird and spoke again. "That's me."
You just looked at her confused. "That can't be you. You're you. That's a bird." She tilted her head slightly.
"If I recall correctly, which I do, you called me a pretty bird, said you'd never seen a peregrine that blue before and thought I was beautiful." She smiled at the thought, but you were freaking out. She could turn into a bird?! The Bird! Everything made so much more and so much less sense now. That's not possible. No, she's not possible. Everything about this mysterious woman has been impossible.
"Well you were, I- I mean not that I think you're not beautiful as a human too- I- No but you're not like beautiful beautiful- I mean I wouldn't- I should stop talking now..." You'd successfully dug a hole. Though Alma just laughed.
"Well I'm glad you think I'm beautiful. At least I believe that's what you said, it was hard to follow." She shrugged and walked over to your suitcase, seeing how everything looked to be tossed in randomly. "Do you need help packing?"
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That one was fun to write-
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A Strange New World
FanfictionY/n travels to Whales in hopes of documenting what had happened there during the war. She stumbles across an old abandoned and crumbling home. Though the curious part, is who she meets inside.
