Thin Ice (MPHfPC Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-Five:

Even more revelations, everyone. And there's more after this, too.

For the first time in a long time, I had no memories for dreams, but nightmares. Nightmares that consisted of murderers hunting me down, gloating about their kills, lurking in the shadows of each room...

Then perhaps the most wicked of them all, a vision of the family I'd lost, the ghost of my mother and father come to visit. They were disappointed, angry even, for me to have messed with the past. Suddenly they wailed and were ripped to shreds by something invisible, maybe a hollow. Then Caul stepped out and shot me too...

"Don't worry, now you can be with them... family is forever, don't you think?"

I woke up in a cold sweat. I was in the same room, but the other children were gone. Miss Peregrine sat in the corner, knitting. She looked up at me.

"Ah, you're awake," She remarked. "How are you feeling?"

I blinked.

"Would you like some tea? Coffee? That might help. Just no alcohol."

"No, thanks," I said. She nodded and went back to her knitting.

"Are we still going to try to storm the wight's fort?" I asked after a while.

"I think we're going to take some time to recover first."

"I'm fine," I argued. "There are people in there that need our help."

"I'm sorry, I worry for everyone in that horrible place as well, but given the state you were in last night..." Miss Peregrine said. She shook her head. "You need the time, Miss Perine. Otherwise it will not work. "

"About last night," I started. "Are you going to say something?"

"What is there to say?" Miss P said. "Surely you've worked out a lot of it. And I daresay you may not be ready to relieve it yet. Sometimes memories are the worst torture devices imaginable. "

"Those people were my parents," I guessed. "They were killed."

Miss Peregrine nodded. "It also seems as though you take after your father, who seems to be a time traveler. Although it seems different than any other peculiarity I've ever heard of, I wouldn't be surprised if you were truly from a different time."

"That would be... weird," I said. "Do you think this has all happened before?"

"That would truly be an odd discovery if we found it was true," Her needles stopped clicking for a moment. She sat still for a few minutes. "An odd discovery indeed..."

"What?" I asked. "You're thinking about something, aren't you?" It was pretty obvious whenever something was on Miss Peregrine's mind.

"Just a feeling," Miss Peregrine admitted. "Nothing more. You look tired, Miss Perine. How about you attempt to sleep some more?"

. . .

For the next few nights, I had the same nightmares; there wasn't a day I didn't wake up in a sweat. Everyone still told me I looked ghastly, and when I looked in the mirror, I discovered it was true. I was extra-pale and sweaty-looking, with bags under my eyes. I knew I was fully in the present, but my blueish-green eyes looked dull like I was sleeping with my eyes open. Emma helped me comb through my dark hair which resembled a bird's nest. How I longed to take a shower, but Devil's Acre didn't have any. Not unless you wanted to look and feel even worse after.

Miss Peregrine was still insisting we wait. I suspect she was still rattled from the last time when we disappeared. I wasn't the only one who wanted to go, either. Joseph had left, but Emma and Jake were pestering about it, as well as Hugh, Bronwyn, and practically everyone else. Even Horace, who wasn't going to go, helped try to convince Miss Peregrine to let us. She wasn't budging. Bentham stayed out of it, we didn't even see him much.