Peculiar ♡ Alma Peregrine

Chapter Twenty One - A Letter

Miss Peregrine's POV :

I stared in shock as I watched Juliette dive off the cliff after Fiona, not sure what to do. After not even a second, I dashed to the cliff and looked over the edge. I couldn't even see Juliette - Just Fiona falling to her death. I changed form without a second thought and flew in a downwards spiral towards Fiona. There was nothing I could do to help, but I at least wanted to be near her. But it wasn't as needed to be near Fiona, because only then did I see Juliette holding Fiona close to her. She was prepared to take all the impact to save the girl.

I closed my eye, flying next to Juliette's head for just a second before impact was made. There was a disgusting crunch and then the sound of what I assumed to be blood splattering all over - some even landed on me. However, there was also the sound of quick breathing and terrified sobs - just one heart beating. Either way I would lose. Either way it would break me into a million pieces. Slowly, I turned my head and my heart sank.

Fiona was trying to sit up, tears streaming from her eyes like a waterfall. Juliette was laying under her, her back bent in half over a stone and her head was slightly split on another sharp rock. Her neck was broken - actually, a lot of her bones were broken. Her legs, her arms... It was such a horrifying sight. I sob broke from my chest, and I gripped my arms for a second before jumping forwards and grabbing Fiona, covering her eyes so she wouldn't look at Juliette. I held my hands over her eyes as I pulled her back up the cliff a safer way, which was quick. A two minute walk.

At the top, all the children were huddled against the huge tree, scared and crying. A few of them shot up and ran over when they saw Fiona, but paused when they saw the blood splattered on her clothes and skin. Still, they hugged her like she had already been killed and came back.
"Where... Where's Juliette?" Emma asked, stepping forward slowly. Her voice was shaky like she already knew the answer. I subtly shook my head and sent Fiona away with the children back to the tree.

"Would you take everyone home? There's something I have to... There's something I have to take care of," I said, fighting back tears. Emma nodded and rounded everyone up, leaving just in time for them to not see the tears fall from my eyes. It felt like I had been punched in the gut and hit over the head with a brick - everything hurt, this was much worse than any physical pain I'd ever experienced from being stabbed. I felt sick when I actually saw Juliette again, she somehow looked even worse than she did before.

I carefully stepped towards her and picked her up, both wanting to be close to her and not wanting to be anywhere near her at the same time. Some blood spilled onto my clothes, but that didn't matter. I got up to the top of the cliff and set her down on the soft grass, letting her body lay unnaturally. I thought about how I was going to fix her up before the children got to see her because they most definitely couldn't see her like this. Maybe I could rush back to the house and find something... I knelt down beside her and placed one hand on her face - it didn't even really look like her anymore.

After a few minutes I decided I would just bring her back to the house to get her sorted out and have Emma and Olive distract everyone else or something... Then maybe I could ask Enoch to help me sew everything back together. The thought made me cringe and cry harder, but I managed to pull myself together. I picked Juliette back up and started making my way back to the house, cradling her head to my chest to keep anyone from seeing her injuries if they saw me.

I walked particularly slowly to the house, purposefully trying to drag this out as long as I could. Tears rolled down my cheeks, making it hard to see - everything was blurring into one huge blob and I felt my world crumbling, falling into a pile of nothing. Eventually, despite how much I dreaded it, I reached the house and looked through the door window, knocking lightly. Luckily, Enoch was the one to answer the door and not one of the younger ones - this would have traumatized them beyond being able to fix it.